Chinese New Words And Expressions On Trade And Economy And Their Translation

Since the reform and opening up, new things and phenomena have kept emerging. As the result of social progress, new words and expressions have been appearing in newspapers, periodicals and books, etc. to meet this urgent demand for expressing these new changes. Translation of new words and expressions on trade and economy has become a very important task in promoting the opening up and economic development of China. The paper attempts to study Chinese new words and expressions on trade and economy and tries to apply linguistic and translation theories to the rendering of these new words and expressions into English, so as to find out some solutions for handling some of the translation problems in this respect.The paper is comprised of the following parts:Chapter One is a brief introduction to the concept of Chinese new words and expressions on trade and economy as used in this paper. They refer to those words and expressions which have appeared or which are added with new meanings after China's adoption of the policy of reform and opening up. The chapter also specifies that socio-linguistic theory, Nida's functional equivalence principle are the theoretical bases on which the study is conducted. The objective of the paper is also introduced in this chapter, i.e. to apply linguistic and translation theories to the translation, and ways for solving difficulties in translation are suggested.In Chapter Two, the classification and features of Chinese new words and expressions are analyzed from linguistic point of view; the sources of Chinese new words and expressions are explored by way of social-linguistic analysis and Nida's "socio-semiotic approach". The importance of background or social-context in translation is emphasized.Chapter Three introduces general translation principles and criteria, and attempts at the application of Nida's "functional equivalence" principle to the translation of Chinese new words and expressions on trade and economy. And some particular factors are taken into account in the relevant translation: context, political consideration, simplicity, etc.In Chapter Four, Nida's functional equivalence principle is further analyzed. And three basic meanings of words are introduced: designative meaning, linguistic meaning and pragmatic meaning, and the paper points out the importance of the application of "functional equivalence" to the translation of Chinese new words and expressions on trade and economy. The chapter also briefs on several functions of language: "informative function, expressive function, vocative function, aesthetic function, phatic function and metalingual function", and holds that "functional equivalence" can be regarded as equivalence of meaning and function.Under the guidance of the "functional equivalence" principle, Chapter Five proposes several methods for translation of technical terms, institutional terms, and some other words and expressions concerning new things and policies in trade and economy: literal translation, literal translation plus explanation, free translation (expansion, defiguration, etc.).And Chapter Six summarizes the contents of the paper, and arrives at the conclusion that appropriate handling of the meanings and functions of Chinese new words and expressions on trade and economy are the keys to better translation in this respect.