Translation Of Set Clauses Of Business Contracts From The Perspective Of Memetics Theory

Under the circumstance of economic globalization, the demand for effective legal communication among different countries has become urgent. Especially after China entering into the WTO, the translation of business contracts exerts great influence on promoting the sale of Chinese products in foreign markets, widening Chinese foreign markets and securing Chinese economic stability. However, the fact is that in China, the translation of business contracts are far from satisfactory, which causes a large number of disputes and negotiations between two parties involved due to the lack of expertise of translators. Therefore, I chose Business Contracts Translation as the subject of my paper.The paper is intended to analyze translations of set clauses in business contracts from the perspective of memetics to find out correspondent translation strategies and to provide enlightenment, the importance of appropriate expression and organization of business contracts, on translators. Based on the definition of meme----meme is information that can be copied and transmitted from one person's mind to the others' mind; we can refer to the business contract as the meme or memeplex without doubt. And those widely accepted set clauses in business contracts are those 'fittest memes', which survive successfully in the rule of natural selection, the survival of the fittest. On the basis of Memetics, this paper highlights how to identify and categorize different kinds of memes in set clauses in business contracts and proposes correspondent translational strategies in light with various types of memes. In order to demonstrate views of the paper clearly and to help translators identify and categorize memes efficiently, the author cited a large quantity of samples in business contracts and employed statistics analysis as auxiliary method. It is expected that translators can grasp the key points of business contracts translation and make full use of the characteristics of memes in the process of transmission to choose the appropriate translational strategies, and to improve the qualification of their translation.The present study has both theoretical and practical significance. In theory, this paper explores the translation of set clauses in a brand new perspective by introducing key notions of Memetics and applying them to the analysis of the translation of business contracts. Besides that, the characteristics and those intersubjective criteria that influence the transmission of memes can improve the preciseness and accuracy of business translation and reduce the negative influence from the expression of original language on that of the target language. Finally, in practice, the correspondent translational strategies proposed in the paper can be used as a referential solution for the translators who engage in business translation.