German Functionalist Approach To English-Chinese Translation Of Business Contracts

Since its opening up to the outside world, China has rapidly increased its economicand technological exchange with the outside world, especially after its entry into the WTO.In commercial activities, most business or commercial relationships have to be defined bycontracts, which are designated to enforce obligations and protect the rights and interests ofeach party involved. As a large number of commercial contracts are concluded betweenChinese and foreign companies every day, a high-quality translation that is precise andaccurate is essential for effective communication and of great importance to ensure asmooth execution of the contract and a successful trade, thus promoting internationalexchanges and avoiding legal disputes and financial loss in the future. Therefore, anintensive study on contract translation is necessary.Up to now, contract translation has been studied by many translation theorists andscholars from different perspectives. Early studies on business contracts can be dated backto the middle-twentieth century, when linguistic-oriented theoretical school dominated.However, In order to meet the requirements of rapid development of translation practice,there is an urgent need for a new theoretical guide that breaks away from the constraints oflinguistic translation theory to translation work. Against this background, functionalisttranslation theory emerges.This paper will study E-C translation of business contracts and explore applicabletranslation strategies under the framework of German functionalist theory, with an aim toimprove the quality of business contract translation. German functionalist theory has greatpractical significance in guiding business contract translation as it makes breakthroughfrom traditional theories by highlighting text function and translation purpose with Skoposas the top-ranked rule and upgrading translator’s position over source text.