商务信函的语用翻译.docx
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商务信函的语用翻译
硕士学位论文
北京第二外国语学院
题目:
商务信函的语用翻译探究
系别:
应用英语学院
专业:
英语语言文学
研究方向:
国际商务英语
指导教师:
XXX教授
年级:
2010届
姓名:
XXX
2010年5月30日
OnPragmaticApproachtotheTranslationofBusinessLetters
By
XXX
AThesisSubmitted
inPartialFulfillmentoftheRequirements
fortheDegreeofMasterofArts
inEnglishLanguageandLiterature
SupervisedbyProfessorXXX
InstituteofLinguisticsandAppliedLinguistics
BeijingInternationalStudiesUniversity
Beijing
May2010
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中文摘要
作为商务沟通的主要形式,商务信函在商务活动中发挥着不可替代的作用。
它大大促进了国际商务与贸易的发展。
因而,商务信函翻译质量的好坏将会影响到交际的成功与否。
本论文要解决的核心问题是探究如何实现商务信函翻译的语用对等。
除引言和结论外,本论文分为四章。
第一章对商务信函做了全面分析,涵盖了从信函性质、形式、功能到更为重要的信函语言特点分析的方方面面,它们对信函的翻译均有重要影响。
基于以上分析,本章提出了商务信函翻译的要求和指导原则。
第二章系统描述语用学和语用对等的概念,对语用翻译做了详尽的分析。
实现语用对等是翻译的理想目标,也是衡量翻译效果的准绳。
受其性质和功能的影响,商务信函十分注重对礼貌的传达。
通过对比中英文化在礼貌原则上的差异,第三章分析了商务信函中的礼貌原则,并通过例证给出了几种旨在实现礼貌对等的翻译策略。
第四章着重探讨了关联理论指导下的商务信函翻译。
关联理论要求译者承担双重角色,既要做原语信息的接受者,又要做目标语的交际者。
它要求译者提供最大关联语境以便目标语读者能以最小的努力获取说话者的交际意图。
语用翻译理论为商务信函的翻译提供了强大的解释力。
关键词:
商务信函;语用对等;对等效果;礼貌;关联理论
Abstract
Astheprimaryformofbusinesscommunication,businesslettersplayanindispensableroleinbusinessactivitiesandcontributeconsiderablytotherapiddevelopmentofinternationaltradeandbusiness.Therefore,thetranslationofbusinesslettersseemscriticaltothesuccessfulcommunication.Itisthefocusofthisthesistoexplorehowtoachievepragmaticequivalenceinthetranslationofbusinessletters.Apartfromintroductionandconclusions,thebodyofthisthesisispresentedinfourchapters.
ChapterOnepresentsthenature,forms,functionsandthelinguisticfeaturesofbusinessletters.Allofthemexertsignificantinfluenceonthetranslationofbusinessletters.Basedontheoverallanalysisofbusinessletters,somerequirementsandguidingprinciplesforthetranslationofbusinesslettersarealsoproposedinthispart.
ChapterTwoelaboratesthepragmaticapproachtotranslationbygivingafulldescriptionofpragmaticsandpresentingtheconceptofpragmaticequivalenceintranslationstudies.Pragmaticequivalenceisanidealgoaloftranslationandcanserveasthecriterionforevaluatingtheeffectoftranslation.
Businessletterspaymuchattentiontopoliteness,whichisdeterminedbyitsnatureandfunctions.ChapterThreeanalysesthepolitenessinthetranslationofbusinesslettersbycomparingthePolitenessPrincipleinbothEnglishandChinesecultures.Variousstrategiesarerecommendedwithexamplesinordertoachievepolitenessequivalenceinthetranslationofbusinessletters.
ChapterFourdiscussesthetranslationofbusinesslettersundertheguidanceofRelevanceTheory.Itrequiresthetranslatortobebothareceptorofthesourcetextandacommunicatorofthetargettextintranslation.Italsorequiresthetranslatortoproducethemaximumcontextualeffectsothatthetargettextreadercaninferthecommunicativeintentionofthesourcetextreaderwithminimaleffort.
Pragmaticapproachtotranslationprovidesastrongexplainingcapacityforthetranslationofbusinessletters.
Keywords:
businessletters;pragmaticequivalence;equivalenteffect;politeness;relevancetheory;
Contents
Titlepage………………………………………………………………
Chinesedeclaration…….……………………………………………..
中文摘要………….....…….…………………………………………..iii
Abstract…………..…..…………………..…………………….i
Contents…………..……………………………………………………v
ListofTables………………………………………………………
i
ListofFigures……...…………………………………………………ix
Abbreviations…….……………………………………………………x
Introduction1
Chapter1AnOverallAnalysisoftheTranslationofBusinessLetters3
1.1Anoverviewofbusinessletters3
1.1.1Natureofbusinessletters3
1.1.2Functionsofbusinessletters4
1.2Linguisticfeaturesofbusinessletters4
1.2.1Lexicalfeatures5
1.2.2Syntacticfeatures7
1.3Thetranslationofbusinessletters8
1.3.1Previousstudies9
1.3.2Requirements10
1.3.3Guidingprinciples10
Chapter2PragmaticApproachtoTranslation13
2.1Dynamicdescriptionofpragmatics13
2.1.1Meaning14
2.1.2Context15
2.1.3Cross-culturalcommunication16
2.2Pragmaticequivalenceintranslation18
2.2.1Equivalencetheoriesintranslationstudies18
2.2.2Pragmaticequivalence19
2.3Pragmaticstudyofpoliteness22
2.4RelevanceTheory23
2.4.1DefinitionofRelevanceTheory23
2.4.2Optimalrelevance24
2.5Summary25
Chapter3PolitenessintheTranslationofBusinessLetters27
3.1PolitenessinEnglishculture27
3.1.1Grice’sCooperativePrinciple27
3.1.2Leech’sPolitenessPrinciple28
3.1.3BrownandLevison’sface-savingview30
3.2PolitenessinChinesecontext30
3.2.1ChinesePolitenessPrinciple31
3.2.2Chineseconceptofface31
3.3Politenessinthetranslationofbusinessletters32
3.3.1Politenessequivalenceintranslation32
3.3.2PolitenessinE-Ctranslation33
3.2.3PolitenessinC-Etranslation36
3.3Summary39
Chapter4RelevanceTheoryintheTranslationofBusinessLetters40
4.1KeypointsofRelevanceTheory40
4.1.1Ostensive-inferentialcommunication40
4.1.2Contextandcognitiveenvironment41
4.2RelevanceTheoryintranslation42
4.2.1Optimalrelevanceintranslation42
4.2.2Writer,translatorandtargettextreader43
4.2.3Relevanceandcross-culturalcommunication44
4.3RelevanceTheoryinthetranslationofbusinessletters44
4.3.1Vaguelanguageinbusinessletters44
4.3.2Relevanceandthetranslationofvaguelanguageinbusinessletters45
Conclusion51
Majorfindingsoftheresearch51
Limitationsandsuggestions51
Revelationsfortheteachingoftranslation51
Bibliography53
Acknowledgments55
ListofTables
Table1
Comparisonbetweendailyexpressionsandexpressionsinbusinessletters…….48
ListofFigures
Figure1TranslatingProcessinRT………………………………………………42
Abbreviations
BISU
BeijingInternationalStudyUniversity
C-E
ChinesetoEnglish
CP
CooperativePrinciple
E-C
EnglishtoChinese
FTAs
Face-threateningacts
PP
PolitenessPrinciple
RT
RelevanceTheory
SC
SourceCulture
SL
SourceLanguage
ST
SourceText
TC
TargetCulture
TL
TargetLanguage
TT
TargetText
Introduction
Withthedevelopmentofeconomicglobalizationandtheexpansionoftransnationalcorporations,thecooperationandtradebetweenChinaandothercountriesareboominganddeepening.China,thelargestexporterandthelargestmarketintheworld,isconductinganunprecedentedexchangewiththeworld.Astheprimaryformofbusinesscommunication,businesslettersplayanindispensableroleincommercialactivitiesandcontributeconsiderablytotherapiddevelopmentofinternationaltradeandbusiness.Businesslettersdonotonlyprovideinformationofproductsandservicesofonecompany,butalsohelpittomaintainandimprovetherelationswithitsbusinesspartners.Therefore,awell-translatedbusinesslettercountsmuchininternationalbusiness.Itcanconveytheinformationthatisequivalenttotheoriginalletter,whichisnecessarytobothpartiesofthecommunication.However,anonlyliterallytranslatedbusinessletterisnotonlyhardtoexpressthepragmaticmeaningoftheoriginalletter,butalsomisleadingtoitsreadersometimes,whichwillaffectthesuccessofatransaction.Itisurgenttoconductmoreresearchesonthetranslationofbusinessletters.
Formanycenturies,translationresearchersandpractitionershavebeenworkinghardtolookfortheeffectiveandproperwaystoconveytheintendedmeaningofthesourcelanguage(SL)withthetargetlanguage(TL).Theyproposedvarioustheoriesfromdifferentperspectives.Manytranslatorstrytoobtaintheequivalencebetweenthetwolanguagesandregardequivalenceastheidealaimfortheirtranslation.AccordingtoEugeneNida’s(1982:
12)functionalequivalencetheory,translatingisinterpretedas“reproducinginthereceptorlanguagetheclosestnaturalequivalenceofthesourcelanguagemessage,firstintermsofmeaningandsecondintermsofstyle.”PeterNewmark(1988:
5)definestranslationas“renderingthemeaningofatextintoanotherlanguageinthewaythattheauthorintendedthetext.”Astranslationstudyandinterdisciplinaryresearchdevelops,pragmaticshasbeenintroducedtotranslationstudies.Pragmaticapproachtotranslationthrowsanewlightupontranslationstudyandprovidesastrongexplainingcapacitytotranslationpractice.EspeciallytheapplicationofPolitenessPrinciple(PP)andRelevanceTheory(RT)providesasignificantguidancetothetranslationofbusinessletters.
Toachievepragmaticequivalenceistheidealgoalofthetranslationofbusinessletters.Amongallthepragmatictheories,PPandRTareadoptedbecausetheyoffermuchpowerfulexplanatorycapacitytothetranslationofbusinessletters.Businessletterspaymuchattentiontopoliteness,whichisdeterminedbyitsnatureandfunctions.Politenessinbusinesslettertranslationhelpstocreateafriendlyatmosphere,settledisputes,solveproblemsandimprovetherelationsbetweenpartners.Severalstrategiesarerecommendedinthisthesistoachievepolitenessequivalenceinthetranslationofbusinessletters.RTbelievestranslationisacomplicatedactivityinvolvingadualostensive-inferentialprocessandrequiresthetranslatortobebothareceptorofthesourcetextandacommunicatorofthetargettextintranslation.Italsorequi