On English-Chinese Translation Of Business Contract And Problem Analysis Based On Functional Equivalence Theory

Eugene A. Nada’s "Functional Equivalence" theory, as a milestone in the development of the translation theory in the20th century, is widely applied in translation practice. Compared with the traditional translation theories, functional equivalence emphasizes reader’s response and takes it as the criteria for judging the quality of translation, which opens a new view for translation studies. Through a general survey about the characteristics of business contract, the author finds the functional equivalence theory has strong applicability in business contract translation. Therefore, in the thesis, the author adopts the approaches of comparative analysis and examplication to extend the analysis about the E-C translation of business contract from the lexical, syntax and textural aspects and make a summary about the problems existing therein. Based on the analysis above, the author finds that the problems mainly result from the incompetency of translator, the differences in culture, language style as well as syntax between Chinese and English. At last, starting from the point that translation needs to be accorded with the language and cultural custom of target readers, the author works out some translation methods for better achieving "the closest and natural equivalence"(Nida&Taber,2004:12) in E-C translation of business contracts.The thesis only makes a preliminary study on the functional equivalence of E-C translation of business contract, so a further study must be made in the future study and work. The author hopes this thesis will arouse more interest in translation of business contract.