A Functional Analysis Of Corporate Profile Translation Strategies With Examples From Top 50 Chinese Overseas Brands

Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization,business interactions between China and other countries have become increasingly frequent.As the main market player in the process of China's going global,enterprises are playing an essential role.Corporate profile thus becomes a window for foreign business partners,potential consumers and job seekers to learn about Chinese enterprises.Under the guidance of German Functionalism Skopostheorie and with questionnaire as the main research method,this paper aims to explore two questions:First,whether the translated corporate profiles achieved the purpose of clarifying key information and products of the enterprises?Second,are the publicity materials well-written enough to be easily understood by foreign readers?The author selected enterprises that meet the research requirements from the list of "top 50 Chinese export brands" and put their Chinese corporate profiles as well as translated version on their official website into the questionnaire.According to results of questionnaire and readers' feedback,the author finds that most enterprises clarified their business scope and products.However,most translated texts were rated low in "readability" criteria.Most of these translations are confined with the notion of "equivalence" and ignored cultural differences.These problems will inevitably undermine the publicity effect of enterprises.Therefore,it is urgent to conduct research from the perspective of the target readers.According to Functionalism Skopostheorie,translators should decide translation strategies according to different translation purposes and text types.And translation strategies that emphasize the effect of translation rather than formal equivalence are generally regarded as the most appropriate strategies for publicity translation.By comparing the translated texts with highest scores and lowest scores,this paper proposed translation strategies such as reorganization of the passage,use second-person pronoun and short and succinct words rather than nominalized verbs,as well as formal expressions to better publicize the enterprise and to make the translation more acceptable to the foreign readers.This paper discussed the guiding significance of functionalism skopostheorie to the English translation of enterprise publicity texts.