Abstract: With the development of economic globalization, trade between China and the rest of the world become more and more frequent. As an essential part of cross-border trade, business contracts play important roles. As a result, businessmen and scholars pay more attention to the translation of English business contracts. Due to the lack of theoretical direction of English business contracts and the high requirements for the translators, there are still many aspects in need of improvement when translating English business contracts. After the description of Nida’s functional equivalence theory and business contracts and their language features, this paper analyses the principles and application of functional Equivalence theory in business English contracts translation and the ways to achieve the functional equivalence, from which the conclusion can be drawn that the functional equivalence makes a great difference in English-Chinese business contracts translation.

Key words:functional equivalence; business contracts translation; faithfulness; accuracy; congruity

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1.Introduction-1

2. Overview of Functional Equivalence Theory and Business Contracts-2

  2.1 Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory-2

  2.2 English Contracts and Their Language Features-4

    2.2.1 The Definition of English Contracts-4

    2.2.2 The Language Features of Business Contracts-5

3 .The Principles and Application of Functional Equivalence Theory in Business English Contracts Translation-7

  3.1 The Principles of Business English Contracts Translation According to Functional Equivalence Theory-7

  3.2 The Application of Functional Equivalence Theory to Business English Contracts  Translation-8

    3.2.1 The Application of Functional Equivalence in Lexical Level-8

    3.2.2 The Application of Functional Equivalence in Syntactical Level-11

    3.2.3 The Application of Functional Equivalence in Textual Level-13

4.Methods of Achieving Functional Equivalence in Business English Contracts Translation-15

  4.1 Conversion-16

  4.2 Addition-17

  4.3 Negation-18

  4.4 Division-18

5.Conclusion-19

References-21