On the Accuracy of Chinese-English Translation of International Business Contracts 论国际商务合同英译的准确性.doc

on the accuracy of chinese-english translation of international business contracts论国际商务合同英译的准确性on the accuracy of chinese-english translation of international business contractsabstractwith chinas market economy developing very fast and the deepening of the reform and opening up to the outside world, economic exchange with foreign countries is ever increasingly frequent, chinese enterprises are finding more and more chances to cooperate with foreign businessmen. in order to conclude an international transaction parties should communicate with each other regularly via the help of translation. contract, as a legal agreement, stipulates the obligations and rights for both the buyer and the seller, therefore the quality of its translation is essential to successful business cooperation.a study on the accuracy of translating contract documents will be well discussed in this thesis. firstly, a general introduction is given about the contract, including the definition, general provisions, legal elements and the significance of this study. then in order to apply the techniques into the development of international business contract translation accuracy, the similarities and differences of language features between english and chinese are illustrated. next, through the adaptation of hallidays register theory, its application is probed in the improvement of international business contract translation. lastly, the inaccuracy cases are explained and some suggestions are given.key words: international business contract; c-e translation; accuracy摘 要 随着我国市场经济的不断发展和改革开放的不断深入，市场竞争机制得到进一步完善，对外经济贸易往来日益频繁，企业涉外经营的规模逐步扩大，与外商合作的机会越来越多，起草、谈判、签订商务合同成为必不可少的环节,其中起桥梁作用的当数翻译了。而在国际经济贸易活动，合同又是中外当事人开展业务和维护权益最为重要的一种法律文件依据，因此对合同翻译就提出了很高的要求，因为合同翻译的质量对于双方当事人的权利和义务、合同本身的履行及合同争议的解决常常会带来极大的影响。因此从探究国际商务合同的准确性入手，首先阐述了国际商务合同的定义、语言特点、一般合同经常包含的条款以及研究合同翻译准确性意义的重要性，接着分析了中英两种国际商务合同在词汇，句法，篇章的语言相似性和区别性，并对词汇，句法，篇章三个层次的翻译策略进行了研究。其次，采用韩礼德的语域理论，分析了它在提高国际商务合同翻译准确性的作用和意义。最后，文章实例分析了国际商务合同翻译中其它的常见翻译失真，并总结了一名合格译者应该具备的素质。关键词：国际商务合同; 汉英翻译; 准确性 contentsintroduction1. about international business contract1.1. definition of contract1.2 general provisions and legal elements of contract1.3 the significance of studying contract translation accuracy 2. accuracy of contract language2.1. language comparison between english and chinese contract 2.1.1. lexical level.2.1.2. syntactic level2.1.3. textual level2.2. translation techniques to accuracy improvement of c-e translation2.2.1. lexical translation techniques 2.2.2. syntactic translation techniques2.2.3. textual translation techniques 3. accuracy of contract register 3.1 halliday: the notion of register3.2 application of register theory in accuracy improvement3.2.1 helping identify the contract register 3.2.2 helping realize the register equivalence in the c-e contract translation 4. analysis of other common inaccuracies 4.1 grammatical inaccuracies 4.2 mechanical translation inaccuracies 4.3 laymen inaccuracies5. requirements for a good translator5.1 strong sense of responsibility5.2 bilingual proficiency.5.3 essential professional knowledge conclusionnotesbibliographyacknowledgments4 introductionwith the trend of globalization and chinas entry into the wto, chinese business has been undergoing ever-frequent exchanges with the outside world. contract document translation, as a form of practical translation once was neglected by chinese translators in their translation studies, has been paid more and more attention to since the last decade. a well-translated, especially an exactly translated contract document conduces to the smooth performance of a business, while a poor one may results in costly failure. carrying on studies in this field can lead to peoples recognition of the importance of contract document translation and thus help to improve the competitiveness of chinese products in international market.through the search in the western translation circles, it is found that the famous english translator, alexander fraser tytler, had three principles of translation in his essays on the principles of translation published in 1790. these three principles on translation are as follows:a) the translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work;b) the style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original; andc) the translation should have the same ease as the original composition. 1in these three principles, “a complete transcript”, “the same character” and “the same ease” are all the description of accuracy in translation.in china, there may be abundant fruits in translation studies, such as (信、达、雅)faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance, which is put forward by yan fu; rather to be faithful than to be smooth (宁信而不顺), which is advanced by lu xuns, etc. yan fu put forward these three principles in the preface of his translation-ethics and evolution(天演论). he gave expression to his theory that translation involves three requirements difficult to fulfill: faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance.(“译事三难: 信、达、雅。”) in their theories, the study of accuracy is also obvious and prominent, such as the principle of faithfulness.however, all of these principles are originally the standards for literary translation; there are no real criteria for business contract translation. the present situation of business translation is characterized by “a mass of uncoordinated statements and did not go beyond the limits of empirical deliberation or essayistic aphorisms”. 2 basing on the above development and considering the frequency and range of the application of contract documents, it is considered as an urgent task to conduct a further research on the business translation accuracy of contract documents, and great hope of probing the accuracy of business contract translation into a higher level and demonstrating the possibility of putting the translation into the fullest extent. so the brief knowledge of business contract will be introduced, the english business contract language will be compared with the chinese business contract language, then the translation techniques is well chosen for the accuracy improvement in business contract translation. next, through the adaptation of hallidays register theory, its application is also probed for the accuracy study. finally, other common inaccuracies are illustrated and suggestions are given for more exact business contract translation.1. about international business contractit is self-evident that contract is very important in foreign trade and business. therefore the translation of contract is vital in business activities. the definition of contract will be firstly discussed. 1.1 definition of contracta contract ordinarily means an agreement between two or more persons-not merely a shared belief, but a common understanding as to something that is to be done in the future by one, both or all of them. contracts are essentially promises; or groups of promises, to do something in the future. if the promises have certain characteristics defined by law, then the promises give rise to rights that will be protected by law and the breach of the promises will give rise to enforced remedies. contracts can be oral or written. in fact, contracts, in a broad sense, are so much a part of living in a society that you are probably unaware of how many contracts you make every day: two people exchanging wedding vows enter into a contract of marriage; a person who has a child is bound to nurture and support that child; shoppers selecting food in a supermarket is bound to purchase the goods for a stated amount. 1999 chinese contract law defines contract as follows: a contract in this law refers to an agreement establishing, modifying and terminating the civil rights and obligations between subjects of equal footing, that is, between natural persons, legal persons or other organizations. l.b curzon gives in his a dictionary of law contract tile following definition: contract is a legally binding agreement. 3 a sales contract needs to be signed by and between the seller and the buyer after both parties have arrived at an agreement so that the transaction may come to an end to satisfy both parties. by doing so, both parties are bound by the contract which is based on the related law. in this way, if one party breaches the contract, the other party is entitled to take legal action against him. once established, an international business contract has similar utility to a contract used in a domestic transaction. a contract is a promise, or a set of promises, for breach of which the law gives a remedy, or performance of which the law in some way recognizes as a duty. no matter whether it is international law or domestic law, sellers have both rights and obligations stipulated in the contract and so do buyers.1.2 general provisions and legal elementsl.b curzon in his a dictionary of law says: contract generally involves: (1) offer and absolute and unqualified acceptance; (2) meeting of minds;(3) intention to create legal relations; (4) genuineness of consent; (5) contractual capacity of the parties; (6) legality of object; (7) possibility of performance; (8) certainty of terms; (9) valuable consideration. 3the 1999 chinese contract law defines the following general provisions (1) title or name and domicile of the parties; (2) contract object; (3) quantity; (4) quality; (5) price or remuneration; (6) time limit, place and method of performance; (7) liability for breach of contract; (8) methods to settle disputes.in accordance with general principles of the civil law of the peoples republic of china, and the contract law of the peoples republic of china, a business contract shall be in compliance with the following legal elements:(1) contractual capacity of the parties; (2) equal legal status of the parties; (3) genuineness of consent; (4) free will; (5) honesty and trustworthiness; (6) fairness; and (7) complying with laws.1.3 the significance of studying contract translation accuracy in order to improve the quality of commercial contracts translation, it is necessary to study commercial contracts translation accuracy systematically and extensively. although commercial contract translation theory is studied and numerous articles and books have been produced, it is far from satisfactory as the research has not systematically touched upon.doing in-depth researches on this issue is actually showing the study direction of the business contract translation, which also provides us a good chance for studying commercial contract translation .this study is characterized by its accuracy-orientedness. it emphasizes the accuracy of translation and its intended functions. whats more, the theory establishes a general correlation between text type and translation strategy, claiming that different text type calls for different translation strategy. all of these are of great significance and help the translator recognize the problems and find the solutions.therefore, researches of accuracy of international business contract translation will bring great practical significance.2. accuracy of contract languagein a contract, language is the soul and the core element, so accuracy of contract language is essential. in this chapter, a comparison about similarities and differences of contract language will be listed, and then a certain translation techniques will be adapted to improve language accuracy.2.1. language comparison between english and chinese contract the legal quality of commercial contracts determines that commercial contract language definitely takes on identifying linguistic forms, such as selection of vocabulary, types of structures and conventions for the organization of information, etc., as compared with other styles. on the whole, both english and chinese commercial contracts belong to a solemn style, characterized by completed syntactic meaning, well-knit structures and standardized style. characteristics of commercial contracts may find full expression in the following six points, namely, 1) focus in content; 2) standardization in layout; 3) complexity in structures; 4)indirectness in reference; 5) preciseness in expression; 6) carefulness in wording. 4 as for the analyzing and thorough understanding are necessary for translation, then it is well known that comparison is a basic way to do researches. just as lu shuxiang, a famous linguist, observes, characteristics of one thing, only through comparison with those of another, can stand out. 5 which is true of the field of translation. in order to find out their similarities and differences, english and chinese commercial contracts will be compared in this chapter therefore, to be specific, comparison is made at three levels, i.e., lexical, syntactic and textual. in the following discussions, these three levels are to be covered in detail.2.1.1. lexical level the range of vocabulary adopted in commercial contracts is extremely wide, totally different from that in ordinary english. drafters of commercial contracts have developed marked preferences in their choice of words. in short, the following distinct characteristics should be taken into consideration.firstly, frequent employment of archaic words; archaisms can add a touch of formality to the language, thus endowing commercial contracts with solemn and archaic atmosphere. both english and chinese contracts enjoy a high frequency of archaisms. in english commercial contracts, there are three common types of archaic words; which appear as here-prep, there-prep and where-prep. such as hereinafter, thereunder, whereof, etc. in chinese contracts, certain chinese words such as 亦、若、倘、惟、概，which are typically ancient expressions, are often used in chinese commercial contracts. in essence, they can be viewed as an equivalent use of archaic words in english commercial contracts as well secondly, careful choice of formal and legal words; it is a common phenomenon that formal or legal words are widely used in both english and chinese commercial contracts. generally speaking, most of english formal and legal words originate form latin, french or other languages. there are similar occurrences in chinese commercial contracts. for instance, formal words such as“子、经、由、特、如、应、该、或”are preferred in chinese commercial contracts. in the chinese language, single-character terms are generally more formal than those composed of two or more characters. . 6 thirdly, terminologies; it is not difficult to notice that both english and chinese commercial contracts abound in terminologies. for instance, force majeure, letter of credit, draft at sight, bill of lading, technology transfer, share prospectus, firm offer are english technical terms and跟单汇票、不可撤销信用证、报盘、承兑、议付、标的物are chinese technical terms. fourthly, preference for the coordination of synonyms; in english commercial contracts, the coordination of all kinds of synonyms is extremely common. however, the coordination of synonyms is seldom discovered in chinese commercial contracts for the sake of conciseness. refer to the following chinese translation.terms and conditions 条款 make and sign 签订each and every 每 by and between 与therefore, language similarities and differences in the lexical level become obvious and study on this subject is an important part in studying the translation accuracy of international business contract.2.1.2. syntactic levelat this level, discussions will be line with the stylistic similarities and differences concerning word, phrase, and sentence types of english and chinese commercial contracts.nouns, verbs prepositions, articles and conjunctions are preferred to other parts of speech in english commercial contracts, although a limited number of adjectives and adverbs are permitted. even pronouns and interjections are almost absent in english commercial contracts. this attributes to authority and solemnity of contracts, which shall be binding upon both parties through imposition of obligations and conferring of rights. on the other hand, relatively speaking, chinese commercial contracts prefer verbs to nouns. sometimes, two or more verbs can be used in succession to perfect logic and expression. of course, nouns still often appear in chinese commercial contract, too. as to prepositions in chinese commercial contracts, they do not cover such a wide range as those in english commercial contracts. conjunctions are not often used in chinese commercial contracts since chinese is paratactic and demands little subordinate devices to reveal relations between or within sentences. adjectives and adverbs are also confined to a small number in chinese business contracts just like the english versions. adverbs are employed to indicate conditions or circumstances on the performance of obligations. at last, pronouns and interjections, as those in english commercial contracts, are nearly absent in chinese commercial contracts for the sake of objectivity and solemnity. as to the sentence types of english and chinese commercial contracts, first of all, as is well known, english commercial contracts are characterized by complex sentences and tight logic, thus producing a lot of tong and complex sentences. sometimes even one paragraph is just one sentence. usually, nominal groups with post-modifiers enjoy a high frequency. pre-modifiers are less used; in contrast, there are also nominal groups in chinese commercial contracts but with pre-modifiers. secondly, adverbials are an essential component in contract language. particula