Stylistic Equivalence In Business English Translation

Business English, a variation of Modern English, is a special variety of English used in business contexts. It differs from general English not only in purposes and significance, but also in word choice, sentence structure and text organization. Stylistics is the scientific study of styles of language use by applying the theories and techniques of modern linguistics. It is a branch of knowledge that studies the expressive effect of languages. Traditional Stylistics solely concentrates on unique features of various literary works.In the 1970's, Halliday proposed the "register" theory in his systemic-functional model of Stylistics. He defined register as "variation according to use". There are three dimensions which can be used to distinguish any register: what is going on ("field of discourse"); the relationship that the language user has with the medium of communication ("mode of discourse"); the relationship between the participants and communicative intention ("tenor of discourse"). Tenor of discourse can further be divided into personal tenor, functional tenor and rhetoric tenor. Personal tenor is concerned with the degrees of formality of the language used. Functional tenor is concerned with the intention of the user in using the language. Rhetoric tenor reflects the way in which language is used for various rhetoric functions. Language can be appellative, explanatory, persuasive or sermonic. Many scholars believe that language has other functions. The three variables constitute different contexts of situation and form texts of varied styles (i.e. registers) via different sounds, vocabulary and grammar. We may say that the functional theory of Halliday laid a theoretical foundation for modern Stylistics.Equivalence is one of the three core issues of translation studies. As it is defined, stylistic equivalence is a kind of functional equivalence, which corresponds with Nida's functional equivalence theory and Halliday's explanation for style. Nida's functional equivalence stresses communicative functions of translation. Likewise, Halliday views style as the three functions of language, namely, ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. The three variables match the three functions of language. Field of discourse is relevant to the ideational function; tenor of discourse is related to the interpersonal function; and mode of discourse has much to do with the textual function. And the ultimate principle for business English translation is functional equivalence, i.e. the TT can convey the information, the medium of the information and the communicative intention of the ST to the largest extent.It is a new field worth exploration to make a study of business English translation from the perspective of style. An overview of the research findings on stylistic equivalence in translation would show that they primarily concern literary styles. The understandings of style are either vague or in quite narrow sense. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to research the feasibility of applying stylistic theory to business English translation, so as to give it a new impetus. A good many contradictions and problems will consequently be solved and stylistic equivalence thus be achieved. This is also where the innovation lies in this dissertation. To be specific, this dissertation is innovative in two facets: (1) instead of treating style as an empirical linguistic intuition, a much narrowed concept of rhetoric or form, a scientific explanation for it has been given on the above-mentioned theoretical basis ( Please see Chapter Two.), and the author further points out that all linguistic choices are stylistic; (2) stylistic theories and the textual function of languages, in particular, are applied in business English translation and a detailed analysis is made ( Please see Chapter Five.).The whole dissertation is conducted in five chapters.Chapter One serves as a brief introduction to international business, international business English and its translation.Chapter Two expounds the feasibility of stylistic equivalence in business English translation, by presentation of the equivalence theory, the notion of Stylistics, different views on style and a macroscopic description of the relationships between style and translation, and between style and translation methods.Chapter Three focuses on stylistic equivalence at lexical level. The author holds that stylistic features at this level are mainly embodied in word choice and, therefore, stylistic equivalence has much to do with it, as well. Word choice of business English in six aspects and stylistic equivalence are explored and a number of stylistically non-equivalent examples are analyzed and proper versions proposed. Chapter Four makes a detailed analysis of stylistic equivalence at grammatical level on the basis of the contrast of the general stylistic features between English and Chinese. Formal equivalence is subordinate to functional equivalence, and it is necessary to make formal adjustments due to a series of differences between English and Chinese: hypotaxis vs. parataxis; complex vs. simplex; flexible word order vs. inflexible word order; passive voice vs. active voice.Chapter Five discusses stylistic equivalence at a more profound level-the textual level. Cohesion and coherence are two major facets of study on discourse. Such devices as reference, substitution and conjunctions are frequently employed in formal business texts. Still due to the stylistic differences between English and Chinese, the translator should resort to repetition, inversion, omission of conjunctions, etc. to make the translated text not only idiomatic but also equivalent to the original both in mode of discourse and tenor of discourse.The author concludes that style in its various categorical manifestations is prominently influential to translation equivalence, that stylistic equivalence should be set up as a correlation between the language and the situation in which it is used, and that the communicative function is the key to equivalence in translation. The text types of business English are basically informative and their Chinese counterparts should also be of 'plain-prose style'. Thus, the method of literal translation is favored in most cases. Yet, flexible translation methods should be adopted in translating specific sub-varieties of business English.