Translation Of Foreign Trade Correspondence Under The Guidance Of Functional Equivalence Theory

With the development of global economic integration and trade globalization, the activities of international economy and trade all over the world are becoming prosperous increasingly. Being the"bridge of international exchange", English for foreign trade now enjoys increasing popularity on the international stage. With our country's successfully entering the WTO, the international trade communication and cooperation become increasingly important. Therefore, the foreign trade English as a unique English style is frequently used to build and maintain a close and friendly relationship and a variety of business contacts among all kinds of enterprises, in which the foreign trade correspondence becomes the main communication tool for its concise style and convenient way of conveying messages and other aspects of advantages. So, the translation of foreign trade correspondence influences the international trade transaction to some extent, if well handled, it will stimulate the deal, and otherwise, it may arouse disputes.This thesis is designed to discuss the translation skills of foreign trade correspondence based on the"functional equivalence theory"which is proposed by the American linguist and translation theorist Eugene A. Nida.The main part of the thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is the literature review about functional equivalence theory and the translation of foreign trade correspondence.In chapter two, foreign trade correspondence is introduced, including its definition, functions, structure, classification and the necessity and imperatives of learning it. In chapter three, the translation theory in the West and Nida's"functional equivalence theory"are illustrated in detail, such as the definition of translation defined by Nida, the developing process of"functional equivalence theory", and the reader's response.In chapter four, the linguistic characteristics and stylistic features of foreign trade correspondence in English are analyzed. The analysis of its features can familiarize us with the accepted trade expressions, facilitating our reading and translation. English for trade is featured by its plenty of terminologies, and many general words are found with different meaning in the trade context. And long sentence and passive sentence are widely used in foreign trade correspondence. Moreover, the courteous style is a conspicuous trait of foreign trade correspondence, which should be paid much attention to in translating. All these features, to great extent, are attributed to the specific purpose of international trade.In chapter five, by applying the"functional equivalence theory"to a large number of practical examples in lexical, syntactic and stylistic levels, the thesis summarizes some practical translation skills and points out several problems a translator should pay attention to in the translation process.Lastly, chapter six is the conclusion of the thesis.Modern trade English plays an ever-increasing role in the international trade. So, it is pressing for both average trade dealers and professional translators in China to understand the way of translating international trade English, which is very important for the development of Chinese economics and trade. The problems that this thesis tries to solve are: (1) how to use more perfect translation skills to improve the accuracy of the translation of foreign trade correspondence and to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding. (2) from the perspective of conciseness and courtesy, how to use the quasi-ancient Chinese style to translate the foreign trade correspondence.