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was presumably Jackson who introduced the term “equivalence” in his article “On linguistic
aspects of translation”. This article has become a classic of translation studies because of
Jackson’s coinage of the concept of “equivalence in difference” which has turned out to be vital
for the further development of translation studies.
From then on, different terms on the concept of TE have been constantly put forward, such
as “closest natural equivalence” (Nida, 1965), “formal correspondence vs. dynamic equivalence”
(Nida, 1964), “communicative equivalence” (Reiss, 1976), “text-pragmatic equivalence” (Wilss,
1980) and so on. In spite that all of these terms are different from each other, they still share
something in common, i.e. they all have absorbed to varying degrees some concepts from
linguistic theories, such as the theory of applied linguistics and the theory of transformational
grammar. Thus they may be viewed as the linguistically oriented schools, whose aims are to
make the study of translation rigorously scientific and watertight just as linguistics aims at
making the study of language strictly scientific.
During the boom of the strictly scientific linguistic theories, many linguists developed
theoretical approaches to translation. In the United States the most influential scholar was
undoubtedly Eugene A. Nida, who, on the basis of his own rich experience in Bible translating,
developed a theory of translation and put forward his concept of functional equivalence, which
will be introduced in detail in the following part.
2.2The Concept of Functional Equivalence
2. 2. 1 A Brief Introduction of Functional Equivalence
Eugene A. Nida, one of the most distinguished theorist in the world, ever suggested: It is
best for us to speak of “functional equivalence” instead of a mere “equivalence” in terms of a
range of adequacy, since no translation is ever completely equivalent. A number of different
translations can in fact represent varying degrees of equivalence. This means that “equivalence”
should be understood on the basis of degrees of closeness to functional identity rather than in its
mathematical meaning of identity.
The concept of functional equivalence is not just a theoretical term but one summed up
through a lot of translation practice. A deep and thorough understanding of this concept is
undoubtedly conducive to the translation practice.
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the form and sound. Also, the translation of operas involves even more serious difficulties, since
the words must fit both the music and the action.
The above-mentioned six principles for producing functional equivalence are only some
among the innumerable and more complicated principles. Some translation theorists attempt to
set up formulas to make more specific what should be done in each type of situation. However,
just as Nida has ever said:“ there are too many different types of situations, too many different
genres, too many different kinds of audiences, and too many purposes for translating. So what is
most needed are not specific formulas or theories, but translators with unusual sensitivity to the
resources of languages, the importance of culture, and the art of translating.”
Although the concept of TE has a long history, it cannot even be regarded as a “theory” so
far, because the rules and principles governing the translation are not so stable that it cannot
deserve the title as a “theory”. Principles for producing functional equivalence by Nida have
presented some very basic methods for dealing with various problems popping up in the process
of translating, but they are by no means all-powerful. Nida’s concept of functional equivalence
seems mature and more reasonable than that of other translation theorists and practitioners, but it
is still far from being perfect and has not formed a system on a theoretical level. Because there
are always many complex factors involved in the process of translation, for many years the
concept of TE has been left as unstable and inconsistent. The relative indeterminacy of the
concept of TE has a host of reasons, which are primarily translator-specific, text-specific and
receptor-specific.
3.1 Translator-Specific Aspects of TE
Translation, as any other kind of linguistic performance, involves human activity. Some
translators believe that the translator can be immune or neutral toward the text to be translated,
while others hold that translators cannot avoid adding their own specific colors to the target text.
In my opinion, the latter one sounds more reasonable, since every translator is a human being
with his own and individual psychological features. The quality of his translational activity
depends on his own tendency toward the text to be translated and his own problem-solving
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capacity.
During the process of translating, the translator should try every possible means to retain both
the semantic and syntactic features of the original text. But more often than not, translators are
compelled to make a choice, giving priority either to the syntactic or the semantic perspective of
the source text. In this way, some subjective elements cannot avoid being added into the target
text.
Even in cases where the translator could largely avoid translational decision-making,
because he has to do with a straightforward text, allowing him to maintain the syntactic and
semantic features of the source language text, his influence on the text to be translated may also
be noticeable.
3. 2 Text-specific Aspects of TE
Semantic ambiguity, syntactic complexity and the encoding phase constitute the three main
factors influencing the text to be translated.
During the process of translating, due to the intentional or unintentional semantic ambiguity of
the text to be translated, the translator will encounter many semantic interpretation difficulties or
semantic evaluation problems, thus placing the translator “between the devil and the deep blue
sea”. The translator must therefore make a semantic decision that is acceptable for the receptor.
Hence, the translations of the same text by different translators may give semantically different
translations, with some having heavy semantic distortions of the SLT (source language text),
which is a serious offence against semantic TE requirements.
Text-specific TE problems can occur not only in cases of semantic ambiguity, but also in cases
of syntactic complexity. It is a well-known fact that a translator often has to cope with highly
involved syntactic text elements, which he cannot possibly find the exact correspondences. The
problem is very irritating since in many cases the translator fails to explain clearly why the SL
(source language) author has chosen such a complicated syntactic structure, which will be
damaged if not handled with great care.
Text-specific TE problems can also occur in TL (target language) encoding phase. Here TE
problems are primarily of stylistic nature. Apart from phraseological fixed means of expression
or stereotypes occurring in phatic communication, as a rule, a language offers several TL
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equivalents of more or less equal rank. Within the framework of TE, this phenomenon, i.e. the
possibility of selecting between a number of equally acceptable TE variants is a disadvantage
rather than an advantage.
From the above analysis we may conclude that the task of translation is by no means an
easy one. Semantic ambiguity, syntactic complexity and the TL encoding phase will all
inevitably pose great difficulties on the translator, thus making it hard to reach complete TE.
3.3 Receptor-specific Aspects of TE
The third and final aspect of TE is receptor-specific. Like the author and translator of the
SLT, the receptor of the translation product is an important element in any translation procedure.
It is evident that the role of the TL recipient is crucial if one realizes that a translator may have a
specific target group in mind.
Here this point can be well illustrated by an interesting example: it is a recipient-specific
translation for one of Shakespeare’s plays by a translation team of students from a university,
who try to provide a textual orientation to the receptor whose knowledge of English is
insufficient for reading and digesting Shakespeare’s plays. This project is motivated by the aim
to reveal as closely as possible Shakespeare’s “literary free style” and the semantic bipolarization
of his means of expression and thus to prepare the way for a semantically adequate translation of
Shakespeare’s plays.
From the perspective of receptor-specific TE, Nida has made a communicative approach to
the resolution of TE issues. For Nida, language is above all a multi-functional tool of
communication. In order to be communicatively efficient, linguistic utterances must be receptor-
oriented. This principle is imperative not only for intralingual but interlingual communication to
a larger extent.
Although there are a lot of factors—the translator, text and receptor—causing the relative
indeterminacy of the concept of TE, the most fundamental and direct reason for the
indeterminacy is due to the distinct features of the source and target languages themselves. It is
almost impossible to establish one-to-one correspondence on the textual, syntactical or even
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lexical level between the source and target language, since there are still many other types of
correspondence in addition to the one-to-one correspondence.
4.1 The Four Categories of Potential Equivalence Relations
Generally speaking, all potential TE relations can be subsumed under the four categories:
total, optimal, approximative and zero TE (also non-equivalence).
A. Total TE means a formal and semantic one-to-one correspondence between the source and
target text.
B. Optimal TE means a one-to-many correspondence that can be reduced to a one-to-one
correspondence according to the context.
C. Approximative TE means a one-to-part-of-one correspondence. There may exist a
semantically similar item in the target language corresponding to the source language. Both
items are, however, in terms of meaning range not identical.
D. Non-equivalence results from TL lexical gaps relative to SL lexical item, which require
adaptational transfer procedure in going from SL to TL.
Among the above four classifications, the most difficult to cope with should be the last one—
non-equivalence. Whether the choice is easy or troublesome, under the first three conditions, at
least a relative equivalent term can be found in the target language for the source language. As
for non-equivalence, however, it is completely impossible to find a correspondence from the
target language because there are no items at all to choose from.
Non-equivalence may appear at such hierarchical levels as the lexical, syntactic or even the
textual level. Due to the limited space, this paper will only focus on non-equivalence at the most
basic level, i.e. the word level.
4.2 Non-equivalence at Word Level
4. 2. 1 The Factors Responsible for Various Problems of Non-equivalence
Non-equivalence at word level means that the target language has no direct equivalent for a
word that occurs in the source text. There are many factors to cause the problems of non-
equivalence.
A. Culture-specific Concepts
The SL word may express a concept that is totally unknown in the target culture. The concept
may be abstract or concrete; it may have something to do with a religious belief, a social custom,
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or even a type of food. For example, the abstract concept of “speaker”(of the House of
Commons) and the concrete concept of drugstore both are unknown in most of the other
languages.
B. The SL Concept is not Lexicalized in the Target Language
The SL word may express a concept that is known in the target culture but simply not
lexicalized. “Landslide” has no exact equivalent in many languages, although it only means
“overwhelming majority”.
C. The SL Word is Semantically Complicated
This is a common problem in translation. A single word can sometimes express a more
complex meaning than a whole sentence. Languages automatically develop very concise forms
for referring to complex concepts if they become important enough to be talked about often. We
do not usually realize how semantically complex a word is until we have to translate it into a
language that does not have an equivalent for it.
D. The TL Lacks a Superordinate or a Hyponym
The TL may have specific words(hyponym) but no general words (superordinate), and vice
versa.
There is no ready equivalent in many languages for the word “facilities”, meaning “ any
equipment, building, services, etc. that are provided for a particular activity or purpose.” There
are, however, several specific words and expressions which can be thought of as types of
facilities, such as “means of transport,” “essential accommodation” and “equipment.”
Under “house”, English has a variety of hyponyms which have no equivalents in many
language, for example: “bungalow”, “cottage”, “croft”, “chalet”, “lodge”, “hut”, “mansion”,
“manor”, “villa” and “hall”.
E. Differences in Expressive Meaning
There may exist a TL word which has the same prepositional meaning as the SL Word, but it
may have a different expressive meaning. The difference can be great, or it can be subtle but
important enough to pose a translation problem in a given context.
Words like “homosexuality” provide good examples. “Homosexuality” is not an inherently
pejorative word in English, although it is often used in this way. On the other hand, the
equivalent expression in some other languages is inherently more pejorative and would be quite
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E. Translation by Omission
This strategy may sound rather absurd, but in fact it does no harm to omit a word or
expression in some contexts. If the meaning conveyed by a particular item or expression is not
vital enough to the development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy
explanations, translators can and often do simply omit the word or expression in question.
Source text: The panda’s mountain home is rich in plant life and gave us many of the trees,
shrubs and herbs most prized in European gardens.
Target text: The mountain settlements of the panda have rich varieties of plants. There
are many kinds of trees, shrubs and herbal plants that are preciously regarded
by European gardens.
The source text addresses a European audience, and the use of “gave us” highlights its
intended orientation. The back-translation for the translated version addresses a different
audience and therefore suppresses the orientation of the source text by omitting expressions
which betray its original point of view.
F. Translation by Illustration
This is a useful option if the word which lacks an equivalent in the target language refers to a
physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space and if the
text has to remain short, concise, and to the point.
The examples discussed above do not, by any means, include an exhaustive account of the
strategies available for dealing with non-equivalence at word level. One should continue to study
and analyze texts translated by experienced translators in order to discover more strategies and
learn to assess the advantages and disadvantages of using each strategy in various contexts.
5.0 Conclusion
This paper focuses on the concept of TE and non-equivalence at word level. Due to various
factors, this concept is far from being taken as a theory. Among various views on this concept,
functional equivalence is relatively mature and more reasonable than others. A careful analysis
of the reasons for the relative indeterminacy of the concept should be useful to conduct further
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experiments and produce a more stable theory so as to guide the translation activity. Also it is
helpful to have a basic understanding of the factors responsible for non-equivalence at word
level and some strategies for dealing with it.
The views on the concept of TE are still at issue. This paper just makes a skin-deep research
on it. But the argument, which comes from authentic practices and authorized theories, is logical
and reasonable. The researches on the concept of TE are helpful to the production of a mature
translation theory. Yet, more researches are necessary to better the real application. The task is
tough, but the prospects are bright.
Bibliography(小三,黑)
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(空四行)
Acknowledgements (加黑三号)
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