摘 要

尤金.奈达的“功能对等”理论是20世纪翻译理论发展进程中的一个重要里程碑，在翻译实践中的应用较为广泛。通过对商务合同特点的探讨，作者发现，功能对等理论在商务合同翻译方面有极强的适用性。

本文以奈达的功能对等对等理论为视角来分析英文商务合同的翻译,在介绍完功能对等理论的总体框架和英文商务合同的特点后，我们会根据从商务合同翻译文本中所举的例子，展现商务合同翻译的模式，从功能对等理论的视角来解释英文商务合同的翻译过程。

关键词：功能对等翻译理论，英文商务合同的特点，英文商务合同翻译

Contents

1. Introduction............................................................................................................1
2. Demonstration........................................................................................................1

2.1 Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory.................................................................1

2.2 Features of English Business Contract..................................................................2

2.2.1 Language Features of the English Business Contract........................................2

2.2.1.1 Formal Terms Being Frequently Used............................................................2

2.2.1.2 Technical Terms Being Applied a Lot.............................................................3

2.2.1.3 Massive Use of Archaic Words.......................................................................3

2.2.2 Syntactic Features..............................................................................................3

2.2.2.1 Using Long Sentence......................................................................................3

2.2.2.2 Using Statement Sentence..............................................................................4

2.2.2.3 Using Conditional Clause and Attributive Clause..........................................4

2.3 The Applications of Equivalence Theory to Business Contract Translation........4

2.3.1 Functional Equivalence at Lexical Level..........................................................5

2.3.1.1 Equivalence of Legal Terms...........................................................................5

2.3.1.2 Equivalence of Common Words With Special Meaning................................6

3.3.1.3 Equivalence of Archaic Words.......................................................................7

2.3.2 Functional Equivalence at Syntactic Level.......................................................8

2.3.2.1 Equivalence of “Subject to”...........................................................................8

2.3.2.2 Equivalence of “Provided that”......................................................................9

2.3.2.3 Equivalence of “Including without limitation”..............................................9

2.3.3 Functional Equivalence of Set Clauses.............................................................10

2.3.3.1 Validity Clauses..............................................................................................10

2.3.3.2 Representations and Warranties Clause..........................................................12

2.3.3.3 Dispute Settlement Clause..............................................................................13

3. Conclusion..............................................................................................................15

Works Cited................................................................................................................16

Bibliography...............................................................................................................17

An Analysis on Business Contract Translation From the

Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

1.Introduction

Since a business contract initiated by a foreign company is often written in English and the Chinese party needs a Chinese version, the English-Chinese translation of business contracts come up. It is important to ensure that the translated international business contracts are not only linguistically accurate, but also in conformity with the purpose of the original text. Any inappropriate or even distorted translation of contracts does mean that businesses have to risk a loss. Although many studies have been devoted to this kind of translation, it is still far from enough.

Compared with the traditional translation theories, functional equivalence emphasizes reader's response and takes it as the criteria for judging the quality of translation, which opens a new view for translation studies. Through a general survey about the features of business contract, the author finds the functional equivalence theory has strong applicability in business contract translation.

This paper aims to examine the Chinese translation of business contract from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory. After introducing the general framework of Functional Equivalence Theory and the features of English business contract, we will try to provide a Functional-Equivalence-Theoretic explanation of the process of the translation of business contract, presenting a model of the translation of business contract, with examples taken mainly from the translated texts of business contract.