A Translation Report On Engineering Contracts

Engineering contracts are the semi-legal instruments containing legal effects. The main functions of the engineering contracts are to settle down the agreements between the different parties on rights and obligations, which express the legitimate aspirations rigorously. The translation of engineering contracts is a business scope containing different industries, different regions and different business departments. Therefore, a detailed understanding of the different language characteristics, especially the Chinese engineering contracts is the foundation and the key points to draft and translate the engineering contracts. To achieve the targets, translators frequently use professional vocabulary, synonyms, loan words and abbreviations, etc. In the application of technical English, it’s a widely acknowledged phenomenon that a word usually possesses a variety of meanings. Some daily words are given new meanings in engineering contracts. To translate the engineering contracts properly, translators should weigh the meanings of these words carefully and select the precise meaning on the basis of the actual situation.This paper applies Eugene Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory to interpret the characteristics of the engineering contracts in their translation from syntactic and lexical levels. According to the experience in the translation of engineering contracts, the author summarizes the key points of engineering contract translation from the translation of engineering contract vocabulary and common phrases, the use of passive voice, articles and the word order etc. The author hopes that the present research will provide help to the future translations on engineering contracts.