A Study On Business Contract Translation From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

In recent years, with an increase in foreign trade, more and more people pay attention to business contract translation. However, business contracts vary considerably in translation quality, which may cause trade frictions. Therefore, it is necessary to make systematic study on business contract translation.Business contract translation has been studied from different perspectives such as skopos theory, register theory and stylistics, but there are only a few people who have applied functional equivalence theory to business contract translation. Functional equivalence theory means “Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closet natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in therms of meaning and secondly in terms of style”, which has common requirements with the principle of business contract translation. Therefore, functional equivalence theory can provide beneficial theoretical direction for business contract translation studies. The main translation strategies include literal translation, omission, addition, condensed translation, transference, division, synthesization, etc.This thesis analyzes the similarities and differences of Chinese and English business contracts in style from three aspects: words, sentences and chapters, helping translators understand the overall style in business contract translation. Moreover, translation strategies, with the guidance of functional equivalence theory, are proposed to solve common problems in business contract translation.The following conclusions are drawn from the study in this thesis: The language of target text should be fluent, professional and rigorous to achieve semantic equivalence. As far as the target text should focus on the linear characteristic of business contracts to achieve formal equivalence. In terms of style, the target text should retain the style of the original text and reproduce legal stylistic features of the original text to achieve language style equivalence.