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Approaches To Business Letter Language--With Focus On Chinese-English Translation

Posted on:2003-06-01Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:J L ZhangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360095457038Subject:English Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
English is the main tool used in the international commercial activities. Most business letters and oral transactions are carried out in the language of English. In the foreign trade companies of our country, most of the letters, contracts, articles and confirmations are drafted first in Chinese and then translated into English. Therefore, to grasp Chinese-English translation skills is essential for business representatives. With China's membership of WTO and with the development of foreign trade, it is the urgent need for the representatives to promote their bilingual understanding and translating capabilities. In this dissertation, under the guidance of the theories of linguistics and translation, the author summarizes linguistic features of business letters and generalizes some commonly used translation techniques.Chapter One is an introduction to business letters. On the basis of comparison of letters in the past and in modern society, the author reviews the evolution of linguistic features of business letters, discusses the importance of business letter translation and analyzes the present research on Chinese-English translation of business letters.Chapter Two analyzes the elements and format of business letters, lists some common opening and closing sentences with various English translation forreaders' reference.Chapter Three and Chapter Four are the keys for this dissertation. Chapter Three summarizes the linguistic features of business letters into seven C's: Completeness, Conciseness, Clarity, Concreteness, Courtesy. Consideration and Correctness. A great number of sentences are given as examples to show the linguistic phenomena in English business letters. The mistakes easily made are mostly discussed here. Chapter four mainly analyzes the Chinese-English translation techniques of business letters. Under the guidance of linguistics and translation theories and with many listed examples, the author generalizes translation techniques from semantic, lexical and grammatical levels including diction, conversion, addition and amplification, inversion and pattem-to-pattern correspondence etc. However, usually to translate one sentence several techniques are involved. Therefore, Mastering all these techniques and freely using them are much more important.The originality of this dissertation lies in under the guidance of the theories of linguistics and translation systematically analyzing Chinese-English translation techniques of business letters from semantic, lexical and grammatical levels. The purpose is to facilitate the translator to create a perfect English business letter.
Keywords/Search Tags:Business Letter, Linguistic Features, Translation Techniques
PDF Full Text Request
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