Business English Translation From The Perspective Of Nida's Equivalence Theory

Expansion of economic globalization and the rapid economic development in China combined with the dramatic increase in China's ability to hold global activities lead to the increasing frequency of business intercourse between China and foreign countries. So business English translation plays an increasingly important role. Although translation has a history of three millennia and a wide range of theoretical guidance or criteria have been proposed in China, there is insufficient business English translation theory.Nida's Equivalence theory is the core of western translation theory. It is initially intended for Bible translating, but it is applicable to non-literary translation. The essence of Equivalence theory, which consists of "formal equivalence" and "functional equivalence", lies in "the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to the target language text should be the same as the degree to which the receptors in the source language respond to the source language target". It refers to fulfill the communicative function.Business English is a branch of ESP (English for Special Purpose) and has its own characteristics. At the lexical level, there are many abbreviation, business terms, compound words and twin words. Brief phrases are adopted rather than wordy expression. At the syntactic level, many settled formats and declarative sentences are used especially in business correspondence. The formats of the business English texts including L/C, Memo, contracts and business correspondence are usually fixed.Belonging to a branch of ESP, the function of business English is to achieve communication. That is to say, the translators need to convey the information correctly so that "the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to the target language text should be the same as the degree to which the receptors in the source language respond to the source language target". This aim coincides with the "readers'response theory" in Nida's Equivalence theory.Due to different cultures and language conventions between China and English-speaking countries involved in business English translation, the translators need to analyze the source language text carefully and make necessary adjustments. By doing so, can the translators successfully realize the communicative purpose by means of functional equivalence between the source and target language.The thesis focuses on chapter two to four. In chapter two, the author introduces the main content and essence of Nida's Equivalence Theory. In chapter three, the characteristics of business English from lexical, syntactic, and textual levels are described with vivid examples. In the last chapter, plenty of examples and cases are quoted to testify how does Nida's Equivalence Theory provide guidance in business English translation.