Abstract：The Thorn Birds, which was written by Colleen McCullough, has been translated by many scholars. Among all of the translation versions, the Xiaoming version and Zenghu version are the most popular ones.
Based on Nida's Functional Equivalence theory, this paper makes a contrast of the two versions. In the theory of Functional Equivalence, Nida proposed that the response of the source language reader should be generally consistent with the target language reader. He advocated the equivalence of meaning and style, and meaning is the most important, style is the second. In terms of meaning and style equivalence, this paper will extract some examples from the two versions to have a comparison. This paper mainly focuses on the differences of the two Chinese versions, what’s more, the applicability of Nida’s theory. In a word, it mainly explores whether the Functional Equivalence theory can be accepted or understood by the readers.
Key Words: The Thorn Birds Functional Equivalence meaning style
中文摘要：《荆棘鸟》是澳大利亚著名作家考琳·麦考洛的作品。至今许多学者对其进行了翻译，但其中最为著名的则是晓明、陈明锦的译本（概括为晓明版本）和曾胡的译本。
本文基于奈达功能对等理论对两个译本进行对比分析。奈达在功能对等论中提出：要使源语读者的反应和目的语读者的反应基本一致，同时，使源语信息最自然的在目的语中实现对等。而翻译是用最恰当、自然、对等的语言从语义到文体层面去再现源语信息。其中奈达最为提倡意义和形式的对等，其中意义是最重要的，形式其次。 在意义和形式对等两方面，本文将从两个译本中节选一些例子，以奈达的功能对等理论为依据进行分析，探索两个中译本的差异以及奈达理论的适用性，即奈达提出的意义最为重要形式其次的理论，在具体的翻译中是否能被读者接受并理解。
关键词：《荆棘鸟》；功能对等；内容；形式
Contents
Abstract
中文摘要
Chapter One Introduction-1
1.1 Background of the Study-1
1.2 Significance of the Study-1
1.3 Structure of the Study-2
Chapter Two Literature Review-3
2.1 Preview Studies on Functional Equivalence Theory-3
2.1.1 Functional Equivalence Theory-4
2.1.2 Limitations of Functional Equivalence Theory-4
2.2 Preview Studies on The Thorn Birds-5
2.2.1 Brief Introduction to Its Chinese Versions-5
2.2.2 Preview Studies on Xiaoming Version-5
2.2.3 Preview Studies on Zenghu Version-6
Chapter Three Comparison of Two Chinese Versions-7
3.1 Comparison in Terms of Meaning-8
3.1.1 Comparison on the Sentence Level-9
3.1.2 Comparison on the Contextual Level-9
3.2 Comparison in Terms of Style-10
3.2.1 Comparison on the Narrative Level-10
3.2.2 Comparison on the Conversational Level-11
3.3 Summary-11
Chapter Four Conclusion-12
4.1 Major Findings-12
4.2 Limitations-12
References-13
