A Translation Report Of ICSID Annual Report (FY2011-FY2014)

This project is about the English-Chinese translation of annual reports of the InternationalCentre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID or the Centre) from FY2011to FY2014.Established on October14,1966, ICSID is a member of the World Bank Group which alsoincludes IBRD, IFC, IDA and MIGA. ICSID’s main function is to cope with arbitration andconciliation proceedings for the settlement of investment disputes between Contracting Statesand nationals of other Contracting States in accordance with the provisions of ICSIDConvention. With the increasing number of cases registered in and administrated by ICSID,ICSID’s function and international reputation is becoming more and more noticeable.Therefore, it attracts more attention from the international organizations, internationalarbitration institutions and individuals that have affairs in the regard. The project would offerreferential significance to arbitration institutions and individuals in China.This report is composed of six parts. Chapter One briefly introduces the background,significance, objectives and project structure. Through comprehensive analysis of projectbackground, the writer lists the current status of ICSID, which ranges from market demands,exemplary roles to cooperative tendency. As for the project significance, it includesinformation disclosure, win-win opportunities, academic influence and self-improvement ofthe translator. Chapter Two demonstrates the definition and current translation status of annualreports abroad and at home. In chapter three, the writer analyzes the source text fromlinguistic aspects through illustrative methods and lists the translation difficulties andaccording to the specific practical process. In chapter four, the writer categorizes the sourcetext into business discourse in legal context according to Halliday’s register theory in view ofthe specific features of ICSID’s annual reports, analyzes the source text from field, mode and tenor aspects respectively, and puts forward the key points of translation, which refers to therealization of equivalences of ideational function, interpersonal function and textual functionin the target text. Chapter Five is the main body of the whole paper, in which the writerconducts case analysis from3aspects, which are lexical level, syntactic level and textualcohesion. From the lexical level, aiming at conveying the ideational meaning of the sourcetext correctly and concisely, the writer uses literal translation, addition, meaning selection,conversion and foreignizaiton+noting. As for syntactical level, in order to deal with the longcomplicated sentences and specific language phenomena, the writer adopts the strategies ofrestructuring, amplification, negation and domestication, etc. Last but not least, takingHalliday’s theory as the guidance theory, the writer tries to carry out textual cohesion fromtwo aspects, which are lexical cohesion and grammatical cohesion, and highlights the fourmain strategies adopted in this part, which are collocation, repetition, reference andconjunction. Chapter Six draws a conclusion of this report and offers some suggestions for thefuture translation of business discourse in legal context, such as translation procedures andrequirements for the translator. The writer also points out the limitations and the placesneeded to be improved at the end of this report.