Features And Translation Strategies Of Business Discourse In Legal Context

The business English is necessary in the international communication, because of the differences between the English and Chinese, the transformation of language become an indispensible part of the business activity. Therefore, the translation of business discourse requires the professional and strict method to be handled. Unlike the general text translation, the business discourse translation needs the regulation and restrain of legal environment. The business discourse in legal context does not contain all kinds of business discourse, but some documents that involved with the interests of business parties and some of them bear the legal power. The business discourse in legal context does not mean all kinds of business discourses. For instance, business contracts agreements, business regulation documents, etc... These discourses expound the relevant right and responsibility in the business activity in written form. They are major part in the international business activities. The business contract is a kind of legal documents which has equal regulation to the two parties in the business activity. It related with the business activity between countries, enterprises and other parties. The business contract, as a branch of legal English, plays a more and more important part in our life.Along with the development of the technology and economic, the business discourse in legal context have permeated into our life. While looking into the future of China as one of the strongest economic powers in the world, the international business of our country will be certainly developed, meanwhile, it faces many challenges. The business discourse translation, as legal documents and arm will play a part in the development of international business.In this thesis, the author collects many persuasive examples to prove that there are similar features between the discourse in legal context and legal English. However, there is no specific definition of the legal context. The theoretic research of translating strategy of business discourse in legal context is still behind the development of its practical use. At the same time, general translating theory could not completely suit for the business English discourse translating. Therefore it is indeed necessary to build the translating principle for the business discourse translation in legal context. In consideration of this, this thesis referenced modern translating theory both in broad and at home, collected abundance examples, and made relevant research about the translating principle of business discourse in legal context. However, the fact is not so optimistic; the definition of legal context and research about the translation strategies of business discourse in legal context is far behind its practical development. At the same time, the general translation theory could not fit with the translation of business discourse, thus, the research of the translation criteria and strategies of business discourse legal context is very necessary. For this reason, the author reviews many modern translation theories, collects a great number of examples, and makes related research about the translation strategies of business discourse in legal context. In this paper, the author reviews several translating theories which could be used in the translation of the business discourse. For instance, the legal English theory and context theory is introduced in theoretical framework part. In addition, the author introduces relevant theories, like subjectivity of translator, functional equivalent theory, and text typology theory. Besides, the author presents the contents of English business discourse, including the definition of it, and its language feature. After the analysis of context theory and business English discourse, the author discusses the business discourse in perspective of legal context. The research begins from several different approaches, for example the vocabulary, sentence structure and so on. The author collects a great number of source discourse and target discourse for comparison, tries to discover how the translating activity could proceed in the legal context. This thesis uses the method of comparison, according to the comparison between the business discourse and legal English discourse, the author attempts to find out the similar feature of the two discourses. In the end of the paper, accord with the research of the context theory, the author finally proposes the translating principle and translation strategies of business discourse in legal context. The author hopes this paper will provide some effective suggestion. Therefore, the translation quality of business discourse in legal context could be improved.