论读者反应在奈达理论中的地位与作用

On the Role and Function of Readers' Response in Nida's Translation Theory

美国翻译理论家奈达的动态对等理论一直被认为是一种比较模式,即比较译文读者与原文读者分别读了译文与原文后的反应然后对译文质量做出评判的模式。对此,译界一直存有争议,比如,读者反应到底应该如何衡量,读者到底有无一致的反应等等。事实上,奈达理论其实是过程模式,读者反应不过是个引子,为的是吸引读者并将读者引入到书中翻译过程的描述上。奈达理论的核心是描述、规范翻译过程。奈达暗示,凡是按照他定出的翻译过程进行翻译,译文一定能够达到动态对等,即读者反应对等。

Readers' response or dynamic equivalence is almost synonymous with Nida's translation theory.Meanwhile,however,controversy over readers' response abounds centering on its possibility and uniformity.The present author argues that the thrust of Nida's theory is the process of translation rather than readers' response,which is nothing but an introduction leading to the main arguments of his theory.Nida's theory belongs to the so-called process model rather than the comparative model.The author cites evidence to prove his arguments,which include Nida's exclusion of readers' response from the preface of his monograph,the change of dynamic equivalence to functional equivalence later in his theory and no mention in his book of esthetics reception theory at all,among others.