Nida's Functional Equivalence

Nida's functional equivalence

In order to achieve passage equivalence?language is not the unique element we should consider, what we should also take into consideration is how the language represents meaning and performs its function in a specific context. Passage equivalence consists of three pans: passage context?scene context and cultural context. Passage context lies in analysis of language?which aims to judge the meaning of words and semantic units in original text?and is based on analysis of meaning and connotation of the passage. Scene context includes the concrete person and things involved in communication?the channel of communication?the relationship among participants and mental emotions.

Sentence equivalence is more complicated than lexical equivalence. In English-Chinese translation?singular and plural form is an important and evident problem?Plural meaning in Chinese is not expressed with any evident plural form?which is different in English. Moreover, for different target language, tender, number and tense should be taken into consideration in translation. Thus, translator should be clear about whether such a sentence exists in the target language or not, and be clear about the frequency of such sentence grammar. For instance, the Chinese saying "????????"