Research On The Principles And Strategies Of Business English Translation From A Functional Perspective

In recent years, with the rapid development of economic globalization and China's opening to the outside world, business English translation has become more and more important in international economy and trade. Business English translation is categorized into ESP (English for Special Purpose),so its features are different from those of other kinds of translations such as literary translation. Therefore, there is much limitation to the application of the traditional translation theories in business English translation. This thesis attempts to take Skopos theory, Communicative Translation Theory and Functional Equivalence Theory to analyze business English translation from functional perspective. Meanwhile the thesis also employs several points out that the functional theories can be guidance to business English translation and puts forward some principles and strategies suitable and useful for business English translation.The thesis includes five chapters:The introduction part mainly explains the necessity of researching on business English translation and the current studies of business translation in China and aboard.As the theoretic basis of the thesis, the second chapter mainly introduces the development of functional theories and its most influential theorists. In this part a detailed discussion is given to functionalists and their theories of German class. According to analysis of functional theories, the author summarizes that the functional theories take the"Skopos"theory as the prime principle, which proposes that the translator should pay attention to the expected purpose and communicative function of the target text in the target language. In terms of translating business text, the translator should take the communicative purposes of the senders as the core standard of business English translation. In order to reach the function of communication, the main task of the translator is to find suitable ways to have the target text compatible with the functions of the original text.Chapter three briefly analyzes the stylistic characteristics of business English from lexical, semantic and textual levels. In lexical phase, there are a lot of technical words, abbreviation terms, archaisms and those from other languages used in business English translation. As to syntactical level, established expressions are widely used in business English. In business contract, prominence of long sentences and declarative sentences domain the whole text. While short and concise sentences always appear in business letter writing to reduce the rate of improper translation in same extent. Finally in textual level, business English is full of settled formats and its style is formal, complete and concise. On the basis of the understanding of the characteristics of business text, the translators can analyze the business text from each elementary levels and better understand their functions.Chapter four, which is the most important part of the thesis, has discussed the application of business translation theory in business translation practices. On the analysis of Chapter Two and Three, the author researches on the functions of business English under three main functional translation theories and explains that these theories can be a effective and reasonable guidance in business English translation. For effectively achieving these two functions during the business English translation, selecting proper information and achieving functional equivalence between source and target text can be regarded as the specific principles for business English translation. Then the author employs a great number of examples to specify functional equivalences and shows the importance of paying attention to these aspects. With respect to the functional theory, some techniques are presented in the final part of this chapter, which can solve specific problems appearing in business English translation so as to make business English translation more effectively and accurately.The conclusion part summarizes that the functional theory can be the basis of business English translation and guides the business translation practices.