Abstract

With the development of the world economy, communications between countries are more and more frequent. News is an important part of information exchange between countries, and the headline is the soul of news. However, there are many differences between Chinese and English in content and form, which caused some deficiencies in the current news headline translation. Therefore, it is very necessary to make a study of translating the headline from English to Chinese.

Due to the particularity of English news headlines, the translator should not only express the original information but also consider the reader’s response. Functional equivalence theory was an important translation theory put forward by Eugene Nida in 1960s. “Content is over form” and “Reader’s response” are two most essential concepts in functional equivalence theory. They are consistent with the aim of news headline translation. Under the guidance of functional equivalence theory, this paper discusses the translation methods of English news headlines in order to be helpful to the current English news headline translation.

Key words: functional equivalence; English news headline; translation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Functional Equivalence Theory-2

2.1 Development of Functional Equivalence-3

2.2 Influence of Functional Equivalence Theory-4

2.3 Advantages of Functional Equivalence Theory-4

3 General Introduction to English News Headlines-5

3.1 Definition of English News Headlines-5

3.2 Features of English News Headlines-5

3.2.1 Lexical Features-5

3.2.2 Grammatical Features-6

3.2.3 Rhetorical Features-7

4 Functional Equivalence Theory in the Translation of English News Headlines-7

4.1 Difficulties in the Translation of English News Headlines-8

4.2 Common Strategies of English News Headlines Translation-8

4.2.1 Amplification-8

4.2.2 Omission-9

4.2.3 Rewriting-10

4.2.4 Other Strategies-11

5 Conclusion-12

References-14