What are the principles of functional equivalence theory?

1. Strive to create translations that not only conform to the semantics of the original text but also reflect the cultural characteristics of the original text.

2. If meaning and culture cannot be taken into consideration at the same time, the translator has no choice but to abandon formal equivalence and achieve the purpose of reproducing the semantics and culture of the original text by changing the form of the original text in the translation.

3. If the change in form is still not enough to express the semantics and culture of the original text, the translation technique of reinvention can be used to resolve cultural differences and make the source language and target language achieve equivalence in meaning.

The origin of Nida’s functional equivalence theory

1. The predecessor of Nida’s functional equivalence theory—Nida’s dynamic equivalence theory

Dynamic equivalence Coming from the principle of "equivalence effect" advocated in Nida's 1969 book "Translation Theory and Practice", dynamic equivalence includes four aspects: lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, discourse equivalence, and stylistic equivalence. .

The principle of dynamic equivalence requires that the relationship between the target language readers and the information conveyed in the text maintain a certain degree of consistency with the relationship between the source language recipients and the information conveyed in the text. . Therefore, the information needs to be adjusted accordingly according to the language characteristics and needs of the target language readers and the expectations of the target language readers’ cultural context.

2. Conversion from Nida dynamic equivalence to Nida functional equivalence

In his 1986 book "From One Language to Another Language", Nida stated He proposed the novel professional term "functional equivalence" for the first time, but he believed that there was no big difference between the "dynamic equivalence" proposed before and the "functional equivalence" proposed later.

He explained in his other book "Language and Culture - Language in Translation": The previous "dynamic equivalence" emphasized that the correspondence between the source language and the target language must take priority. As for the equivalence in style and form, such a statement will cause certain misunderstandings and disputes. Instead, it will make people think that "the meaning and information of the translated text are in a contradictory relationship with the stylistic form of the translated style itself." Therefore, in order to eliminate people's To solve the misunderstanding and confusion, he proposed the theory of "functional equivalence".

Because the word "function" in this term focuses on the actual communicative function of translation, "functional equivalence" can more accurately express the equivalence idea proposed by Nida.