There are four schools of translation theory in modern western countries: Prague School, London School, American Structural School and Communicative School. The main arguments of Prague School are as follows: (1) Translation must consider various functions of language, including cognitive function, expressive function and instrumental function; (2) Translation must pay attention to the comparison of languages, including the comparison of semantics, grammar, pronunciation, language style and literary genre. London School is a linguistic school with British characteristics, which believes that the meaning of language is determined by the social context in which it is used. In the field of translation studies, whether the words in the translated text are equivalent to the original text depends on whether they are used in the same language environment. Bloomfield is a representative of American Structuralist Linguistic School. He put forward the behaviorist semantic analysis method, which holds that meaning is the relationship between stimulus and language response. In 1950s, Bloomfield's theory was replaced by Chomsky's theory of the transformational generation. There are three viewpoints in Joe's theory: (1) human beings are born with language ability; (2) Language is governed by rules; (3) Language includes surface structure and deep structure. The influence of this theory on translation studies mainly lies in its exposition of surface structure and deep structure. The differences between languages mainly lie in their surface structures, while the deep structures have the same characteristics. Under the influence of the above linguistic theories, American structuralist translation theories, represented by voegelin, Bollinger, Katz, Quinn and Nida, were formed. Nida is a representative of communicative translation theory. His translation theory can be summarized into six aspects: (1) theoretical principles. All languages have the same expressive power, and the primary task of translation is to make readers see the translated text clearly. (2) The essence of translation. According to Nida's definition, "the so-called translation refers to reproducing the information of the source language with the closest and most natural equivalent from semantics to style in the target language". Three of them are the key points: first, "follow nature", and the translation cannot have a translation cavity; The second is "closest", and the translation with the closest meaning to the original text is selected on the basis of "nature"; The third is "equivalence", which is the core. Therefore, translation must meet four criteria: (a) expressiveness; (b) vivid; (c) The wording is fluent and natural; (d) Readers' reactions are similar. (3) The role of translation. From the perspective of sociolinguistics and the communicative function of language, Nida believes that translation must serve readers. (4) Correct translation. Whether the translation is correct or not depends on the correct understanding of the translation by the target readers. (5) Semantic analysis. An important process of translation is semantic analysis of the original text. Semantics can be divided into three types: grammatical meaning, referential meaning and connotative meaning. (6) Procedures and methods of translation. In his view, the whole translation process is divided into four steps: analysis, interpretation, reorganization (reorganization of the translation according to the rules of the target language) and inspection. In 1980s, Nida's translation theory changed greatly. The main new viewpoints are as follows: (1) Translation is not a science, but a technology; (2) Translation ability is innate; (3) Translation is not only a language communication activity, but also an interactive activity of social symbols. The above quotation is from /Cms/Article.aspx? ArticleID= 107。 You can look at Tan Zaixi's A Brief History of Western Translation and Liao's Exploration of Contemporary Western Translation Theory.