A Study Of Translation Of Chinese Legal Texts Guided By Functional Translation Theory

With the globalization of economy, scholars are more concernedabout the translation of legal texts. In China, although significantaccomplishments have been made, there are still a lot of problems.More researches should be carried out to help translators do a betterjob in the field of legal translation.This thesis is intended to explore strategies and techniques for C-Etranslation of legal texts guided by the functional translation theory.First, the thesis briefly reviews the history of legal translation in Chinaand in the West, concisely overviews the current researches on legaltranslation in China, and highlights the significance and purpose of thestudy. Next, the thesis inquires into major linguistic features of legalEnglish from three perspectives, before it studies functional translationtheory and explains the feasibility of applying the theory to legaltranslation. Then, after introducing the two translation strategies, i.e.domestication and foreignization, the thesis discusses their applicationto translation of legal texts from Chinese into English. Subsequently, withgood examples, the thesis illustrates major translation techniques for C-Etranslation of legal texts by applying Skopos rule, coherence rule andfidelity rule. Moreover, the author analyses the English versions of typicalChinese legal texts.Finally, the author points out that under the guidance of functionaltranslation theory, the translator will be able to produce a target text ofhigh quality, if he or she possesses a firm grasp of the language featuresof legal English and a good command of translation strategies andspecific translation techniques.