On Translating Synonym Juxtaposition In Commercial Contracts From The Perspective Of Register Theory

With the globalization of world economy and the rapid growth of international trade, China, as a powerful country in the world, is exerting significant influence on the international business activities. As is well known, most international contracts are written in English which is the dominant language in the international business communication. As a non-English-speaking country, China has a rapidly growing demand of contract translation. However, the quality of commercial contract translation is sometimes far from satisfactory, leading to contract disputes because of inappropriate even wrong translation more than once. At present, researchers have taken great efforts to do a lot of studies on commercial contract translation, with the phenomenon of synonym juxtaposition concerned. However, with the lack of strong theoretical foundation, most discussions about synonym juxtaposition focus on translation skills rather than systematic analysis.M. A. K. Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics is one of the most influential linguistic theories in the latter half of the20th century. It focuses on the analysis of language in context and on a range of different levels. In other words, specific aspects of a given context are usually stressed, such as topic, expressions and communication methods. Register theory, an important branch of systemic functional linguistics, pays uttermost attention to the actual use of language. Compared with formalist linguistics, Register Theory puts the study of language in its real communicative contexts. Halliday suggests that there are three variables in any situations: field, tenor and mode. These three variables are interrelated, and any change of these three variables may result in the change of register. In recent years, register theory has been widely applied to translation studies both at home and abroad.Synonym juxtaposition is a rather common phenomenon in English commercial contracts. American legal expert Peter M. Tiersma (1999:113) points out that lawyers prefer long lists of synonyms, especially in conjoined phrases. Tiersma indicates that conjoined synonyms or near synonyms phrases in legal writing, especially in contracts and agreements, are used five times often than they are used in other texts. This special phenomenon has its own historical reasons and objective conditions. Thirty contracts are selected from authoritative websites and a micro corpus is built about synonym juxtaposition. With this corpus, this thesis is devoted to the study of synonym juxtaposition under the framework of Halliday’s register theory. By analyzing synonym juxtaposition in terms of field, tenor and mode, we can conclude three register features which can be used to guide the E-C translation of synonym juxtaposition. It is summarized that E-C translation should be analyzed from these three register features so that the original meaning can get its all-around conveyance with the attainment of register equivalence. The thesis is thus in a hope to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon of synonym juxtaposition in commercial contracts.