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In 1969，the famous American translation theorist
Eugene A. Nida put forward functional equivalence theory. Unlike the
traditional translation theories that mainly stress the correspondence between
the source language and target language， Nida's functional equivalence
theory reader's response. Nida points out that in order to reach the ideal translation， it is necessary to find the
closet natural equivalence. Nida's functional equivalence theory open up a new
perspective to translation studies.
In Nida's view， translation is not only the
equivalence of words? meaning， but also includes semantics， and style， the message translation of
both the surface lexical information， but also deep cultural
information. Nida's focus on receptor's response in his new concept of
translating is actually the theory of dynamic equivalence，which is” directed primarily
toward equivalence of response rather than equivalence of form”．
In Nida's opinion， a dynamic equivalent
translation must fit the receptor language and culture in order to make the
translated message intelligible and natural to the target language receptors．“A translation of dynamic
equivalence aims at complete naturalness of expression，and tries to relate the
receptor to modes of behavior relevant within the context of his own culture；it does not insist that he
understands the cultural patterns of the source language context in order to
comprehend the message.”
In 1969， in Nida's work From One
Language to Another， he started to use the 2 term functional
equivalence to replace dynamic equivalent. However， there is not much difference
between them. Nida described functional equivalence like this： “Basically， dynamic equivalence has been
described in terms of functional equivalence．The translation has been
defined on the basis that the receptors of a translation should comprehend the
translated text to such all extent that they call understand how the original
receptors must have understood the original text .”
Nida further perfect his theory in the
1990s. In his book Language， Culture and Translating， he divided functional
equivalence into different degrees of adequacy from minimal to maximal
effectiveness on the basis of both cognitive and experiential factors. The
Minimal definition of functional equivalence is “The readers of a translated
text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they call conceive of
how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciated it.”
The Maximal definition of functional equivalence could be stated as “The
readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in
essentially the same manner as the original readers did”.
