英语商务合同的文体特征和翻译技巧.docx

英语商务合同的文体特征和翻译技巧.docx

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英语商务合同的文体特征和翻译技巧

英语商务合同的文体特征和翻译技巧

成人高等学历教育

毕业论文英语商务合同的文体特征和翻译技巧

办学单位:

外国语学院

班级:

08级外贸英语（专升本）

学生:

李东磊（501026）

指导教师:

蔡苏露提交日期:

2010年11月4日

封面推荐用230克浅兰色皮纹纸

BusinessEnglishContractsLiteraryStylefeaturesandTranslationTechnique

ByLiDongLei

Supervisor:

Prof.Caisulu

NOV04,2010

SchoolofForeignLanguages,SCUT

Abstract

BusinessEnglishContractsLiteraryStylefeaturesandTranslationTechnique

Withtherapiddevelopmentofinternationaleconomyandtrade,businessEnglishcontractshavebeenwidelyusedininternationalbusinessactivities.However,manybusinesseconomicdisputesarecausedbythefailureintranslationofthem,sohowtotranslatethebusinessEnglishcontractappearsmoreandmoresignificantnowUptonow,lotsoftranslatorshavebeendedicatedtostudyingthetranslationskillsofbusinessEnglishcontract,butmostofthemonlyplaceemphasisontheliterarylevelofthecontract,butignoreitsspecialtythatbusinessEnglishcontract,asalegaldocument,hasstrictrulesandconventionalusagesofitsown,whichisdifferentfromtheaverageappliedtexts.Sothispaper,basedonboththelinguisticandlegalcharacteristicsofbusinessEnglishcontract,analyzesitsownlanguagefeaturesandtranslationstrategiesFirstly,thepaperanalyzesitsstylecharacteristicsonwords,sentenceandtextlevels.Then,thepapersummarizesthetranslationstrategiesofbusinessEnglishcontractandgivesadviceonitstranslationmethods.Throughtheaboveresearch,thepaperhopestoimprovetranslators’capabilityofcomprehensionandtranslationofbusinessEnglishcontract.

KeyWords:

businessEnglishcontract;stylefeature;translationtechnique

摘要

英语商务合同的文体特征和翻译技巧

随着中国对外经济贸易的飞速发展,商务英语合同在国际商务活动中使用得越来越广泛。

其中不少商务经济纠纷在很大程度上是由于合同翻译失误所引起的,因此,商务英语合同的翻译问题也显得越来越重要。

到目前为止,已有许多翻译工作者致力于商务英语合同的翻译技巧研究。

然而大部分的研究都强调从文本的文学方面对商务英语合同的翻译进行研究,而忽略了商务英语合同本身作为一种法律文本,有其严格的规则和惯例,有其独特的特点,因而不同于一般的应用文文体翻译。

因此,本文从商务英语合同的文体和法律特征两个方面来分析其自身的特点以及其翻译技巧。

本文首先从商务英语合同的词汇、句子和语篇三个方面分析其用语特征。

在此基础之上,第三部分总结归纳出合同翻译的策略,并提出商务英语合同的翻译建议。

希望通过本文的分析能够提高翻译工作者对商务英语合同的认知理解和翻译能力。

关键词:

商务英语合同,文体特征,翻译技巧

Contents

AbstractEnglish

AbstractChinese

1Introduction

2LiteraryStylefeaturesofBusinessEnglishContracts2.1LexicalFeatures

2.1.1FormalWords

2.1.2Terminologies

2.1.3ArchaicWords

2.1.4BorrowedWords

2.2SyntacticFeatures

2.2.1StatementSentence

2.2.2PassiveVoiceandActiveVoiceSentences

2.2.3LongandComplexSentence

2.3TextualFeatures

2.3.1ApplicationoftheLegalFormat

2.3.2ParallelConstruction

3TranslationtheoryofbusinesscontractEnglish

3.1Translationprinciples

3.2Requirementsoftranslators

4TranslationStrategiesofBusinessEnglishContracts

4.1WordanditsTranslation

4.2SentenceanditsTranslation4.3TextanditsTranslation

5.Conclusion

References

1Introduction

WithChina’sentryintoWTOandthefurtherdeepeningandwideningofitsopeninguptotheoutsideworld,businesscooperationbetweenChinaandothercountrieshasbecomemorefrequentlyandmorecontractsaresignedinbusinesscircles.MostofthesecontractsarewritteninEnglish,whichhasbeenacceptedasaninternationalbusinesslanguage.AllthismeansthatthetranslationofbusinessEnglishcontractsisnowplayingamoreimportantroleinthebusinesscommunitybothinChinaandabroadBusinessEnglishcontractsarelegaldocumentswhichdefinetheobligationsandrightsofbothpartiesandbindontheireconomicactivities.AgoodEnglishbusinesscontractcanimprovethequalityofbusinesscontactsanditiscrucialtothesuccessofinternationalbusinessactivities.Toproduceeffectivebusinesscontracts,adeepunderstandingofthestylefeaturesofEnglishbusinesscontracts,suchasthecharacteristicsofEnglishbusinesswording,thephraseologyofbusinesscontractsandthepragmaticsandsoon,isneeded.Thesignificanceofthepaperistopromotingthedevelopmentofinternationalbusinessactivity.

Therearealotofresearchersbothathomeandabroadstudyonthisfield.Businesscontractsontheforeignfield:

《InternationalContracts》byShippey.K;《EnglishforContractandCompanyLaw》byChartrandandMarcella,etc.Amongthedomesticscholars,“theLexicalFeaturesandTranslationofBusinessEnglishContract”byChenJianping,itdiscussesandsummarizessomebasicprinciplesandtechniquesofbusinesscontractEnglishtranslation.ChenXinshengfromthepointofstylisticofthebusinesscontractsanalyzesthestylisticfeaturesanditstranslation.LanTian’s《InternationalBusinessContractsCourse》,summarizesthetechniquesofthewritingofbusinesscontract,thetechnicaltermsofthebusinesscontract,thelexicalfeatures,theuniquestructure,andsoonThispapermainlytalksabouttheliterarystylefeaturesofbusinessEnglishcontractanditstranslation.Theresearchmethodofthisthesishasadoptedmainlyincludes:

conceptanalysismethod,evidenceanalysismethod,comparisonanalysismethod,andsoon.

2LiteraryStylefeaturesofBusinessEnglishContracts

ThestylefeaturesofbusinessEnglishcontractsonlexical,syntacticandtextualregulationwillbespecifiedinthispart2.1LexicalFeatures

Wordisthebasisofanykindoftexts.Therefore,lexicalfeaturesofbusinessEnglishcontractsspecializeintheusageofwords.ItisknowntousthatbusinesscontractiscategorizedasbothlegaldocumentsandbusinesswritingandbusinessEnglishcontractssharethedictionwiththelanguageoflawandbusiness.Lexicalfeaturesmainlyencompassthefollowingpoints:

formalwords,terminologies,archaicwords,aswellasborrowedwords.

2.1.1FormalWords

Differenttradepartiesarefromdifferentcountriesandregions;therefore,owingtothediscrepancyoftheirlanguagesandcultures,itisveryeasytohavemisunderstandingbetweenthem.So,businessEnglishcontractadoptsasetofformalexpressionstodoitsutmosttoavoidmisunderstanding.ItcanbeclearlyprovedbycomparingColumnAwithColumnBinthefollowingtable.

PartAPartB

grantgive

levycharge

tarifftax

effectmake

initiatebegin

informtell

acquaintbefamiliarwith

purchasebuy

constituteinclude

terminateend

withinthefirsttendaysofJuneinearlyJune

inlieuofinplaceof

Obviously,thewordslistedinColumnAwhichareoftenemployedinbusinessEnglishcontractsaremoreformalthanthoseinColumnB.Thustheusageofformalwordsfurtherenhancestherigorousofcontractsandminimizesthepossibilityofmisinterpretation.

2.1.2Terminologies

ThevocabularyusedinbusinessEnglishcontractsconsistsofcommonwords,semi-terminology,andterminology.Thecommonwordsareusedinageneralway.Thesemi-terminologiesderivefromcommonwords,andtheyhavespecialmeaningsinthecontracts,andtheyaccountsforthemostpartinbusinessEnglishcontracts.TherangeofterminologyinvolvedinthebusinessEnglishcontractsmainlyinclude:

commerce,trade,finance,law,consignment,processingandassembling,jointventure,technologydevelopment,cooperationandtransfer,construction,andsoon.Takethelegaltermsforexample.Terminologyalwaysconsistsoftheuniquelegaltermstoexpresstheconceptofcommoncoreinlaw,suchastort侵权andsubrogation（代位权）.However,themainproblemintranslationofforeigntradecontractsiscausedbyfailuretoindentifythesemi-terminology.Itmayresultinfalseordistortedtranslation.Forexample:

Weconsideritdifficulttofileaclaimagainstthemanufacturers.

我们认为厂家提出索赔有些困难。

Ifacountryisexportingmorethanitimports,itisreceivingforeigncurrencyandhasabalanceoftradesurplus.

如果一个国家的出口大于进口,便是贸易顺差。

Thecontractisconcludedincaseofacceptanceoftheoffer.

要约一旦承诺,合同即行成立。

Inthesesentences,claim,balance,acceptance,offer,astermsinbusinessEnglish,isusedinitsspecialnotnormalmeaning.Moreexamplesareasfollows:

WordsGeneralmeaningUsageinContract

accept接受承兑

credit信誉贷款

collection收集托收

honor荣誉承兑

draft草稿汇票

interest兴趣利息

factor因素代理人

policy政策保险单

agreement同意协议

promotion提升促销

offer提供报盘

average平均海损

2.1.3ArchaicWords

Archaicwordsrefertothewordsthatareseldomusedinmoderntimesbutarefrequentlyusedinancienttimesandmiddleage.AccordingtowhatEnglishlinguistGeoffreyLeech2008pointsoutinTaxonomyofEnglishWords,archaicEnglishbelongstowordswithformalstylisticmeaning,whichcompletelymeetstherequirementsofprecisionandconcisionofbusinessEnglishcontracts.TherearealotofarchaicwordsusedinthebusinessEnglishcontracts,whichoftenappearintheformofcompoundadverbs,i.e.,wordsformedbyadverbs“here,there,where”combiningwithsomeparticles“after,at,by,from,in,of,to,under,upon,with,as,etc”,suchas“herein”,“hereof”,“hereinafter”,“herewith”,“thereafter”,“therein”,“thereof”,“thereto”,“whereby”,“whereof”,“wherefore”.Therearemoreexamplesasfollows:

Example1:

MattersnotcoveredhereinshallbesettledinaccordancewiththeprovisionsoftheLettersexchangedonJuly15th,2003ashereinabovereferredto.

Example2:

Whereas,thisobjectivecanbebestachievedbytheformationofaJointVentureCompanyforthepurposeofmanufacturing,developing,selling,installingandmaintainingelevators,escalatorsandpartsandcomponentsthereof.Nowtherefore,inaccordancewiththeprincipleofequalityandmutualbenefit,thethreepartiesenterintothefollowingAgreement。

Example3:

ThiscontractismadeandenteredintoBeijingon8thDecember,2005byandbetweentheSellerhereinafterreferredtoasthe“PartyA”andtheBuyerhereinafterreferredtoasthe“PartyB”.

2.1.4BorrowedWords

The