C-E Translation Of Business Letters From The Perspective Of Peter Newmark’s Translation Theory

Business letters refer to the letters that are employed in the process of business transaction, and they are widely used in the economic life. As an important tool of communication in international business world, business letters and their translation have gained much more attention among translators and business staff. To ensure the smooth business transactions between companies, the study of business letters translation should focus on how to help the target language readers to correctly understand the information of business letters and how to have the expected functions of texts realized.Based on Peter Newmark’s text type and translation methods, this thesis will study the Chinese to English (C-E) translation of business letters. Peter Newmark divides texts into three types according to their different language functions:expressive texts, informative texts and vocative texts based on which he puts forward two translation methods:semantic translation and communicative translation. And he holds that semantic translation is used for expressive texts while communicative translation is used for informative and vocative texts.Newmark points out that business letters fall into the type of informative texts and therefore should be translated communicatively. However, few texts are purely expressive, informative or vocative:most include all three functions, with an emphasis on one of the three. Business letters also have various types and different language functions. Some letters aim to invoke the readers’ feelings and to convince them to enter into business relations with the writer; some letters are mainly used to convey business information during business transactions such as the quality or quantity of the goods, the packing, the delivery, terms of payment, shipment, insurance and etc. Therefore, the author tries to classify the text functions of business letters and to discuss the translation method accordingly. At last, the author comes up with the idea that in order to have the text functions well conveyed in the target language culture, the C-E translation of business letters should follow the principles of the target language stylistic conventions and industry norms.It is hoped that after the study of text functions and C-E translation of business letters, the thesis will give a macroscopic view of business letters translation, improve the translation theory and practice of business letters in a certain level, and help translators and foreign business workers to do a better job in business letters translation.