Language Features of Song Deli’s Chinese Version of The Theory Of Moral Sentiments from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Abstract

Moral construction cannot be ignored when people are making great efforts to develop economy. Adam Smith makes a concise theoretical explanation of a rich and colorful world of human moral sentiments in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Based on the principle of “sympathy”, he puts forward his own views on the ethical categories of justice, kindness and conscience, and comprehensively constructs his own ethical system, which has been helpful for the economic development and moral construction of other countries. From the perspective of Nida’s translation functional equivalence theory, the author chooses Song Deli’s Chinese version of The Theory of Moral Sentiments to analyze and study its language features in lexical, syntactic, textual and stylistic levels, so as to make an objective evaluation to help readers appreciate the translation and also provide reference for translation learners in terms of diction.