Application Of Equivalence Theory In English-Chinese Translation Of Business Letters

Business letters are the written effective communicative tools of business and language communications. They belong to one of the formal official and commercial documents. Their function and translation are very important owing to the fact that BLs(business letters) involve the economic benefits and communicative goals of both parties (importer and exporter). So, the proper and efficient translation of BLs is becoming more and more important. BLs have the special language style and professional characteristics, that is to say Seven-Cs: completeness, correctness, clarity, conciseness, correctness, consideration, and courtesy. The form of language, terms and contents are closely related to the major of International Trade. The translators should adopt common and commercial terms in the target text, which can be understood by most businessmen. All the terms are in accordance with International Trade Practices.The author firstly introduces briefly the definition, nature, process, specific methods and evaluation of the translation. The purpose of the translation of the BLs is to enable Chinese readers of English BLs to understand the foreign writers' intention and follow their instruction to take business actions. Therefore, the proposal of translation principles is imperative. Both domestic and foreign scholars and translators propose the equivalence theory, such as Nida, Catford, Mona·Baker, Tai Zaixi, Jidi, Luo Xinzhang and so on. Although their ideas on the equivalence theory are different, their contributions are prominent. The general principle of writing of the author is from easy to difficult, from single to whole, from subjective to objective, from static to dynamic, from theoretical to practical. The author applies the equivalence theory to the translation of BLs in an effort to reach the best communicative objective with the least effort. The examples are selected from International Trade practices and successful textbooks.Through comparison and analysis of them, the author proves that the equivalence theory is superior to others in the application to E-C translation of BLs. Pragmatics deals with the language use in communication. There are two pragmatic principles related to the paper, which are generally used in interactive communication. The author proposes Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle used in the composition and E-C translation of BLs. In addition, other factors such as the difference between English and Chinese, the differences between Chinese and Western culture must be taken into account. The author describes the equivalence theory from word, sentence, and sentence group, textual and pragmatic level of equivalence from functional perspective.The thesis falls into five chapters.Chapter One introduces the general ideas and the information about Business letters. Chapter Two is a literature Review of the equivalence theory in translation. Chapter Three examines pragmatic equivalence translation theories. Chapter Four is a study of English and Chinese business letters and the practical use of the equivalence theory. It gives the definition of business letters and a brief introduction to the egoistic and stylistic features of English BLs. Chapter Five is the conclusion of the paper. From the above analysis, it concludes that the principles of translation of BLs are adopting "exact and professional language", "consistent English-Chinese translation names", "functional information equivalence" and "communicative objective achievement".At last, the author discusses the great significance of the study and suggestions for further research on this subject.