Abstract: In the international trade activities, the quality of business contract translation not only relates to the trade interests of the two parties, but also affects their future cooperation. Translation of business contract plays an important role in international trade activities. In the light of functionalist theory, this thesis makes a detailed analysis of translation of English business contracts at both macro level and micro level. This thesis analyzes the function, typology, and skopos at macro level. At micro level, this thesis mainly analyzes linguistic features of English business contract and explores the translation methods at lexical, syntactical and textual levels. This thesis concludes that functionalist theory has an effective applicability to the translation of English business contracts.

Key words: business contracts; functionalist theory; translation methods; applicability

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.-Introduction-1

1.1 An Overview to Business Contracts-1

1.1.1 Definition of Business Contracts-1

1.1.2 Linguistic Features of Business Contracts-2

1.2 Previous Studies on Business Contracts-5

1.2.1 On the Language Features of Business Contracts-5

1.2.2 On the Translation of Business Contracts-6

1.3 Organization of the Present Study-7

2. Functionalist Theory-7

2.1 A Brief Introduction to Functionalist Theory-8

2.2 The Main Principles of German Functionalist Theory-9

2.2.1 Text Typology-9

2.2.2 Skopos Theory-10

3.-Functionalist Theory Approach to English Business Contract Translation-12

3.1 Analysis at Macro Level-12

3.1.1 Factors Affecting Translation of English Business Contracts-12

3.1.2 Principles Guiding Translation of English Business Contracts-14

3.1.2.1 Application of Text Typology-14

3.1.2.2 Application of Skopos Theory-15

3.2 Analysis at Micro Level-18

3.2.1 Lexical Functionality-18

3.2.2 Syntactical Functionality-21

3.2.3 Textual Functionality-24

4. Conclusion-27

References-28