Skopostheorie-Guided Approach To The Translation Of English Contract

Skopos theory, proposed by Vermeer in 1980s, has become a systemic theory up to the present. There are three basic principles, which are considered as the kernal of this theory, i.e., the skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. This thesis first introduced the development of skoposthoerie and the three principles raised by Vermeer in detail. Then some comparisons between skopostheorie and other relevant translation theories are made, including"Xin,Da,Ya"and Foreignization and Domestication Theory, etc., in order to locate the common ground between these theories. Upon the results of these comparisons, this thesis testified the scientificalness of skopos theory and thus applied it to contract translation.As China has been melting into the world deeply, more and more international business requires that the parties should sign contracts to regulate the relationships between them. As a result, translation of contract becomes indispensable on the link. At the present time, most scholars who analyze contract translation mainly focus on the micro level and emphasize an equivalent conversion between source and target texts, letting alone the real purpose and essence of contract translation. This thesis considers that an excellent translation of contract is based on explicit translation purpose and close analysis of the original contract, which constitute a good start for contract translation. As there should be some theories supporting contract translation, the skopos theory is applied in the process of it. First, through the analysis of the essence of contract translation, the author considers that the ultimate purpose of contract translation is to make the translated text have the same legal effect with the original, so that it is very important to analyze the original text precisely. After the analysis of the purpose of contract translation, this thesis discusses how to unscramble the original contract scientifically.Second, fidelity rule of skopostheorie is mainly applied to translation at lexical level. Fidelity rule requires that the translated text can convey the meaning of the original text accurately, which is mainly embodied at lexical level.Lastly, coherence rule is mainly applied to translation at syntactical level. As Chinese and English belong to two different linguistic systems, there are a lot of differences on the modes of expression between them. Then, to make the translated text more pursuant to the way of expression of target language becomes another important symbol to evaluate contract translation.