A Study On English - Chinese Translation Strategies Of Business Contracts From The Perspective Of German Functionalist Translation Theory

With the accelerating process of economic globalization, China’s foreign trade and transaction with other countries have expedited strikingly, and the significance of business contract is showing up in the development. The signing of the business contract is an indispensable part in international trade, in China’s foreign trade, however, due to cultural differences as well as the professionalism and language structure complexity of English business contract itself, translating it into Chinese is very difficult. The legal force beard by business contract imposes higher requirements on its translation quality. On the basis of analysis on German functionalist translation theory and its applicability to the research of English-Chinese translation strategies, the strategies which combined text function and translation purpose on macro level with stylistic characteristics of vocabulary, syntax and text on micro level are put forward through plenty of examples. This thesis aims to provide theoretical foundation and strategies for English-Chinese translation of business contract, and to solve the problems encountered in translation practice. Through research, this thesis proves that German functionalist translation theory has applicability and guiding significance to the research of English-Chinese translation strategies of business contract. Under the perspective of German functionalist translation theory, this thesis comes up with some English-Chinese translation strategies of business contract at lexical, syntactic and textual levels respectively: at lexical level, “use written words; choose accurate word; use terminology; embody the enforceability of contract”; at syntactic level, “convert attributive components; adjust order of adverbial clauses; embody the passive voice by applying semantic logic”; at textual level, “be formalized and logical coherence”.