Abstract: Chinese traditional translation theory consists only of translation principles without concrete methodology and it can not be applied to practical translating. This paper gives a brief account to functional translation theory, probes into its theoretical basis and makes convincing exposition of it by using relevance theory so that it enriches its content.
Key words: functional translation theory; basic theory; exposition
Functional translation theory emphasizes that translation is a special form of communication, involving three kinds of texts: the source text, the translator's schema text and the target text. For the source language text, the most important thing is to grasp the rhetorical function of the author and correctly understand the rhetorical function of the source language, which is the key to produce an ideal schematic text. The correct understanding of the cognitive schema of the original text is the basis for the correct understanding of the rhetorical function of the original text. The ideal schema text comes from the cognitive schema of the original text and the accurate grasp of the rhetorical intention of the original author. On the basis of this schematic text, what kind of target language text should be produced should take into account not only the rhetorical function equivalence, but also the purpose of translation and the target audience.
1、 A brief introduction to functional translation theory
（1） Key Points of Functional Translation Theory
According to the papers published in magazines, papers presented at academic conferences, academic reports and monographs published, the main points of functional translation theory are summarized as follows:
1. Analyze the rhetorical function of conceptual paragraph and sentence, make the form of rhetorical function reappear, and obtain functional equivalence and meaning equivalence from the equivalence of form. This kind of translation is called functional translation. Translation should abide by the norms of "faithfulness, expressiveness and X" on the premise of equivalence of rhetorical functions; With different styles, the purpose of translation is different, and X is different. (Zhang Meigang, Chinese Science and Technology Translation, 1994, (3); Liu Chongde, Translation Theory of Sanxiang, Hunan Publishing House, 1995; Zhou Dubao, Chinese Translation, 2000, (2)
2. Functional translation theory emphasizes the consistency between rhetorical form equivalence and functional equivalence. Rhetoric is a means and a form; Function is the result or purpose of rhetoric, and the sum of contents. Rhetoric includes rhetoric in conceptual paragraphs and sentences, that is, rhetoric in linguistic context, as well as rhetoric in situational context, cultural context and pragmatic context. (Rhetoric in English for Science and Technology, 1998) In other words, in conceptual paragraphs and sentences, semantics, grammar and pragmatics are integrated to express rhetorical functions.
3. Functions are embodied by structures. Any language is composed of four symbol elements (words, word marks, word order and intonation). The cognitive schema of language structures is similar to that of other cognitive fields. From simple to complex, from concrete to abstract, it forms a causal network of language. The concept segment runs through a theme chain, or causality. This causal key is composed of propositions or linguistic events, and it is also the reference point for their conceptualization. (Chinese Translation, 1998, (5) This article has been included in the American Colby Information Center of Science&Culture and reprinted online.)
4. Functional translation theory emphasizes the role of cognitive schema theory in translation practice and translation research. The more specific and rich the cognitive schemas of various universal structures and special structures, the stronger the ability of translation research and practice. It is the basis for translators to form schematic texts.
5. Functional translation theory emphasizes that the process of translation is a process of mediation and reasoning, and the causal chain is the basic structure of logical reasoning. It uses the known information to judge the rhetorical functions of non linguistic elements (such as situations, cultures, pragmatics and other contexts), so as to produce the correct conclusion of timing. (English Chinese Functional Translation, 1999)
（2） Methodology of Functional Translation Theory
When we look at translation and translation studies with the principle of rhetorical functional equivalence, we naturally have a complete set of corresponding methodologies for correctly understanding the original text and translating expressions. This is the most prominent aspect of functional translation theory. As functional translation has a relatively complete system, this paper can only summarize some basic and main methods to study it.
1. Thematic Cognitive Approach to Concept Segments
First, divide the original text into concept segments, study the theme of the concept segment, find out the connecting signs, grasp the causal chain of the concept segment (English for Science and Technology Rhetoric), and grasp the functional orientation of language and the correct understanding of the overall content of the concept segment.
2. Functional taxonomy
According to Functional Typological Linguistics, English is divided into five major rhetorical functions: descriptive function, declarative function, defining function, classification function and directive function. Each major function is divided into several small functions, and then compared with Chinese to explore the rules of translation. For example, the English declarative function (the declarative part) is always placed at the beginning of the sentence, while the Chinese is placed at the end of the sentence. (Zhang Meigang: Chinese Translation, 1999, (5); 2000，（5）； China Science and Technology Translation, 1998, (1, 4)
3. Schema research method
According to schema theory, the cognitive schemas of various structures of the source language and target language are studied and compared, such as the structural schemas of English SVO sentences, SvoO sentences, SVOC sentences and passive sentences. Compared with the structural schema of the target language, the study finds their translation rules and methods. (Zhang Meigang: Chinese Translation, 1994, (1, 5); English Chinese Functional Translation 1999) It is worth pointing out that it is particularly important to use cognitive theory to study structural schemata. Look at the following two sentences:
（1） The policeman caused Mary to die.
（2） The policeman forced Mary to die.
The structures of these two sentences are exactly the same, except that the semantics of verbs are different. The first sentence is logical and correct, and the second sentence is not logical and therefore incorrect. From the perspective of the cognitive schema of this SVOC structure, the subject always represents the cause, OC represents the result, and V mainly plays a connecting role to make it form a grammatical sentence. Force means "coercion"; Since policyman has become the reason for "Mary to die", there is no need to add "coercion". According to the cognitive schema theory, the internal structure and semantics of the subject, predicate, object and complement of the structure must be specifically analyzed in order to correctly grasp the function of the sentence.
4. Building block segmentation
Figuratively speaking, language is composed of building blocks and clauses (Zhang Meigang, 1994; William Croft, 1998). Using language is playing with "building blocks", because clauses can not be separated from building blocks in general. Building blocks include nouns, compound nouns, nominal phrases, nominalized structures, etc. In addition to proper nouns and specific nouns, building blocks generally have internal structures, and their internal structures are sentences. The surface layer of a sentence element represents the deep content of a sentence meaning, which is of great significance to translation, because the basic task of translation is to translate the sum of the internal elements of things, that is, the internal meaning.
5. Event segmentation
Language is a causal network composed of events. According to the basic laws of cognition and semantic principles, events must be separated from the causal network
Divide the network and conceptualize it. The basic method of segmentation is to study the internal structure of events, that is, time structure and causal structure. It is necessary to analyze the participants of the event and the causal effects between them. (China Translation, 1998, (5)) The segmentation of events is very complex, which is the key to understanding and expressing in the translation process.
6. Logical reasoning
The study of logic helps the translator to determine the true meaning of the translated paragraph. The existence of all sentences has its prerequisites, and where the sentences are ambiguous, the translator has to determine what the prerequisites are. (Newmark)
Language is a causal network. The relationship between sentences is causal. Any sentence has background information (known information). The unknown information is obtained by using logical reasoning method and expressed logically in target language. (China Translation, 1995, (6); 1996，（1）； Shanghai Science and Technology Translation, 1993, (1); English Chinese Functional Translation (1999)
7. Concept transformation method
The conversion of the concepts expressed in the original language into those expressed in the target language is a conceptualization process of translation, which is the first step in the translation process. Generally speaking, translation is not only a correct conversion of concepts, but also involves the rhetorical environment of the source language, the author's rhetorical intention, that is, rhetorical function. However, the author's intention, or pragmatic meaning, is based on sentence meaning and is affected by the rhetorical language environment. Therefore, translation must also take into account the dynamic meaning of discourse. The choice of translation unit is closely related to the translated text. If the conceptual meaning of the code of the source language can express sufficient contextual effects, that is, rhetorical functions, "building blocks" will become the main carrier of the concept. Generally, the target language has equivalent words, which naturally becomes an ideal translation conversion unit. Literal translation is often used. If the code meaning of the source language can not fully express the contextual effect, the linguistic environment and rhetorical intention of the whole conceptual paragraph must be considered. The translation unit is the sentence or clause (Luo elector), and the free translation method is generally used.
8. Literal translation
Under the principle of functional equivalence, when the semantic meaning of the code can produce equivalent contextual effects, it should "return it directly when speaking directly, and return it figuratively when speaking figuratively. While eliminating the differences in language, it retains the differences in speech." (Feng Shigang, Translation Newsletter, 1982, (2) Preserve the metaphor, image and national characteristics of the original text, and "do not misinterpret the words and sentences of the original text". That is to say, the full meaning of the original text should be reproduced with equivalent words that conform to the norms and habits of the target language. Sometimes, words and sentence patterns that are not in the destination language but are necessary for the expression function, even if they are mechanically copied from the starting language, are regarded as correct. For example:
（1） He walked at the head of the funeral procession, and every now and then wiped away his crocodile tears with a big handkerchief.
He walked in front of the funeral procession, and occasionally wiped away his crocodile tears with a big handkerchief.
In this translation, the purpose of the original author's rhetoric, namely, "cat cries mouse", is fully reflected.
(2) If you don't understand, it's also "casting pearls before swine".
You can’t comprehend it, If I explain it, that is “to play the harp to a bull”.
Although "throw pearls before swing" in English also means "casting pearls before swine", it has a strong religious color and cannot achieve the rhetorical function of the original language.
9. Free translation
On the premise of functional equivalence, while eliminating linguistic differences, we do not preserve linguistic features, such as the rhetorical forms and national characteristics of the original text, the translation methods such as words increase or decrease, repetition, conversion of parts of speech and sentence patterns, word order inversion, sentence splitting, integration, positive and negative translation, etc., should be regarded as free translation. We classify the methods of transformation (omission, borrowing, etc.) and adaptation (free translation, free translation plus literal translation, no translation at all, etc.) as free translation. Because the essence of these methods is common, they are too detailed to be practical and unnecessary. For example:
（1） Her mother’s pride in the girl’s appearance led her to step back.
Her mother looked at her daughter and was very proud, so she went back a few steps. (Translated by Zhang Guruo)
(2) He also said that the focus of foreign capital utilization was on agricultural scientific research, education and technology promotion, talent training and intellectual development.
The money in foreign currency, he added, should be used mainly for education and research in agriculture sciences and technology.
10. Traditional inheritance law
The history of translation in China is more than 1700 years, counting from written records. The first article on translation is the Preface to the Sutra of Fa Sentences written by Zhi Qian during the Three Kingdoms Period. The long tradition of translation culture is worth inheriting. How to inherit is worth studying. According to functionalist translation theory, Chinese traditional translation theory has made a relatively detailed exploration from a macro perspective, and in the final analysis, it focuses on "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance". The discussion on translation is mostly the summary of the practical experience of literary translators, and there is no lack of insight. Yan Fu's translation standard of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" has become a model for future generations and is regarded as a golden rule. With the great achievements of modern linguistic theories, especially semantics, cognitive linguistics and functional classification linguistics, translation theory has been fundamentally influenced. According to functionalist translation theory, the traditional translation theory is very incisive in its discourse on the literal expression of translation, which is based on contrastive linguistics. Because of the clear theoretical basis, many translation expressions in traditional translation theory, such as addition, omission, retranslation, reverse translation, sentence splitting, sentence combining, are practical. Translation includes two aspects: "Comprehension is one thing, and Chinese expression is another." (Fu Lei) "Comprehension" is more important. However, traditional translation theories have not systematically explored the methods and theories of understanding the original language. Functional translation theory emphasizes that while inheriting, traditional translation theories must be reviewed to establish a theoretical system that conforms to the laws of translation. (Zhang Meigang, Chinese Translation, 1999, (5) Zhou Dubao; 2000，（2）； Shanghai Science and Technology Translation 2000, (2)
2、 The theoretical basis of functional translation theory
In recent years, the author has studied the basic theories of functional translation theory and believes that functional translation theory is based on modern linguistics (cognitive linguistics, functional classification linguistics, comparative linguistics) and logical thinking.
Theory refers to the systematic rational knowledge, and the concepts, principles and methods in a certain knowledge field become a system. It is formed in the repeated process of practice and develops with practice. Functional translation theory is a methodology system based on rhetorical functional equivalence, which has strong practicability and operability in translation practice.
（1） Cognition of Functional Translation Theory
What is a function? "Function is meaning" (Hu Zhuanglin, Foreign Languages, 1998, (3)). What is the meaning? According to systematic semantics and conceptual semantics, meaning is the content of a proposition. Words express the most basic concepts, words form clauses, and clauses represent propositions. The collection of propositions constitutes discourse and becomes a causal chain (T. Givon, 1998, University of Oregon, USA). It can be seen that function is the content of proposition, meaning and the purpose of rhetoric; Propositions are forms and means. In other words, function is the result or purpose of propositional means. Function is embodied by form, "form refers to the structure and organization of the internal elements of things".
"Content refers to the sum of the internal elements of things" and "is the whole meaning of the internal elements of things". Professor G. leech discussed the concept of translation equivalence in Chapter 5 of Semantics (the second edition in 1983). He believed that an ideal translation should fully express the communicative value of the original text. In Chapter 2, he described the meaning of seven aspects of the communicative value of the translation and the original text: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning Affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning, thematic meaning, and the second sixth are also called associative meaning.
Translation, to achieve the equivalence of these seven aspects, is an ideal translation. Translation of equivalence in meaning is translation of functional equivalence. On this issue, our predecessor Professor Wang Zongyan had a clear discussion as early as 1981. He pointed out that "the most appropriate translation method in terms of function, that is, the most appropriate translation method in the sense," and "it is not the same as the original in terms of function, and it is not necessarily faithful from the overall perspective". (Wang Zongyan, 1981)
"Form equivalence" and "function equivalence" have a relationship between content and form. "Everything has its content and form", "content is always a form of content, and form is always a form of content", "the same form can reflect different content under different conditions". Functional translation theory emphasizes that "form is composed of rhetorical functions, rhetorical skills, sentence structures, etc. The decisive factor is rhetorical functions, because rhetorical functions determine rhetorical skills, sentence patterns and sentence structures, and even many grammatical phenomena can only be explained from the perspective of rhetorical functions." (On the Functional Translation of EST, 1994) From these discussions, we can see that functional translation theory puts the semantic Grammar and rhetoric are closely combined, influencing each other and inseparable. Highlight the importance of rhetorical function, which is embodied by form and structure. The translation of functional equivalence must first give prominence to the linguistic context within the conceptual segment, and then study situational context, cultural context and pragmatic context from the perspective of rhetorical functions. Because the rhetorical function is dominated by the meaning of words, the grammatical structure of sentences and the pragmatic meaning. The meaning of each word in a sentence is determined by the context of the sentence. According to Van Dijk's macro theory, contextual meanings such as situation, culture and pragmatics also play an important role in the function of conceptual segments.
（2） Interpretation of Functional Translation Theory
The translation theory of functional equivalence can also be correctly clarified and explained by relevance theory. Relevance theory, based on cognitive theory and behavioral theory, is a cognitive pragmatics theory, which is developed from the principle of pragmatics. Next, we will use Relevance Theory to demonstrate the correctness of Functional Translation Theory.
Definition of Relevance Theory: Relevance is the relationship between proposition and context set Cl CN. Relevance is the basic feature of proposition and the relationship between proposition and context. How should we understand this definition? We can think of this definition as having two meanings: first, "set of contexts" refers to a conceptual segment with a clear theme, and relevance is a meaning chain of this conceptual segment; Second, the proposition itself has relevance, which is a small section of the meaning chain. This idea is consistent with the idea of functional translation theory that one or more natural paragraphs with clear thematic meaning are conceptual paragraphs, and there is a theme chain.
The optimal relevance principle of relevance theory emphasizes that any communicative act must ensure its optimal relevance. What is "communicative behavior"? That is, a language event is unfolded according to internal time in the time structure, and swept by causal logic in the causal structure. We can say that events have the best relevance. Moreover, the functionalist translation theory expounds the "building block" theory, which holds that "building block" is an assembled language unit, that is, the content structure of "building block" is a clause with the best relevance.
Relevance theory also holds that relevance is related to context implication, and contextually implied meaning is not the product of proposition itself, but the combination of proposition and context set. Our "rhetorical function equivalence" holds that the communicative function involves semantics and language, and the two cannot be completely separated. The reference events in communication are semantic categories. Both sides of communication adjust their own language according to the context, which conforms to the pragmatic meaning. As far as written language is concerned, according to the requirements of writing purposes, different means and methods are used to describe language events, achieve the intended writing intention and achieve rhetorical functions. Translation makes the original text and the translated text equal in "rhetorical function". In addition to linguistic context, it is natural to consider the situational context, cultural context and pragmatic context of the original language.
Relevance theory holds that translation is a special form of communication between two languages. The "communicative validity" of translation under the relevance theory has the largest weight, followed by other elements such as "reliability". So, what is "communicative validity"? It is the communicative function, that is, the rhetorical function has the greatest weight. "Therefore, syntactic meaning, rhetorical meaning, associative meaning of sentences and semantic meaning must obey the functional meaning of rhetoric. The equivalence of rhetorical function is the highest equivalence." (English Chinese Functional Translation, page 55)
Relevance theory holds that relevance and inference are closely related, pointing out that the process of discourse understanding is mainly a reasoning process, in which judgment of relevance plays an important role in the form of inference conclusions. Functional translation theory puts forward and demonstrates more clearly that language is a causal network, and concept segments run through a causal theme chain. Explain how to grasp this chain to understand and express the original text. (See Research and Translation of Causal Chain, China Translation, 1998, (5); Rhetoric of English for Science and Technology, 1998)