On Pragmatic Approach to the Translation of Business Letters.doc

商务信函的语用翻译探究 on pragmatic approach to the translation of business letters 中文摘要 作为商务沟通的主要形式，商务信函在商务活动中发挥着不可替代的作用。它大大促进了国际商务与贸易的发展。因而，商务信函翻译质量的好坏将会影响到交际的成功与否。本论文要解决的核心问题是探究如何实现商务信函翻译的语用对等。除引言和结论外，本论文分为四章。第一章对商务信函做了全面分析，涵盖了从信函性质、形式、功能到更为重要的信函语言特点分析的方方面面，它们对信函的翻译均有重要影响。基于以上分析，本章提出了商务信函翻译的要求和指导原则。第二章系统描述语用学和语用对等的概念，对语用翻译做了详尽的分析。实现语用对等是翻译的理想目标，也是衡量翻译效果的准绳。受其性质和功能的影响，商务信函十分注重对礼貌的传达。通过对比中英文化在礼貌原则上的差异，第三章分析了商务信函中的礼貌原则，并通过例证给出了几种旨在实现礼貌对等的翻译策略。第四章着重探讨了关联理论指导下的商务信函翻译。关联理论要求译者承担双重角色，既要做原语信息的接受者，又要做目标语的交际者。它要求译者提供最大关联语境以便目标语读者能以最小的努力获取说话者的交际意图。语用翻译理论为商务信函的翻译提供了强大的解释力。关键词：商务信函；语用对等；对等效果；礼貌；关联理论abstract as the primary form of business communication, business letters play an indispensable role in business activities and contribute considerably to the rapid development of international trade and business. therefore, the translation of business letters seems critical to the successful communication. it is the focus of this thesis to explore how to achieve pragmatic equivalence in the translation of business letters. apart from introduction and conclusions, the body of this thesis is presented in four chapters. chapter one presents the nature, forms, functions and the linguistic features of business letters. all of them exert significant influence on the translation of business letters. based on the overall analysis of business letters, some requirements and guiding principles for the translation of business letters are also proposed in this part. chapter two elaborates the pragmatic approach to translation by giving a full description of pragmatics and presenting the concept of pragmatic equivalence in translation studies. pragmatic equivalence is an ideal goal of translation and can serve as the criterion for evaluating the effect of translation.business letters pay much attention to politeness, which is determined by its nature and functions. chapter three analyses the politeness in the translation of business letters by comparing the politeness principle in both english and chinese cultures. various strategies are recommended with examples in order to achieve politeness equivalence in the translation of business letters. chapter four discusses the translation of business letters under the guidance of relevance theory. it requires the translator to be both a receptor of the source text and a communicator of the target text in translation. it also requires the translator to produce the maximum contextual effect so that the target text reader can infer the communicative intention of the source text reader with minimal effort. pragmatic approach to translation provides a strong explaining capacity for the translation of business letters. key words: business letters; pragmatic equivalence; equivalent effect; politeness; relevance theory; contentstitle pageichinese declaration.ii中文摘要.iiiabstract.ivcontents.vlist of tables viiilist of figures.ixabbreviations.xintroduction1chapter 1 an overall analysis of the translation of business letters31.1 an overview of business letters31.1.1 nature of business letters31.1.2 functions of business letters41.2 linguistic features of business letters41.2.1 lexical features51.2.2 syntactic features71.3 the translation of business letters81.3.1 previous studies91.3.2 requirements101.3.3 guiding principles10chapter 2 pragmatic approach to translation132.1 dynamic description of pragmatics132.1.1 meaning142.1.2 context152.1.3 cross-cultural communication162.2 pragmatic equivalence in translation182.2.1 equivalence theories in translation studies182.2.2 pragmatic equivalence192.3 pragmatic study of politeness222.4 relevance theory232.4.1 definition of relevance theory232.4.2 optimal relevance242.5 summary25chapter 3 politeness in the translation of business letters273.1 politeness in english culture273.1.1 grices cooperative principle273.1.2 leechs politeness principle283.1.3 brown and levisons face-saving view303.2 politeness in chinese context303.2.1 chinese politeness principle313.2.2 chinese concept of face313.3 politeness in the translation of business letters323.3.1 politeness equivalence in translation323.3.2 politeness in e-c translation333.2.3 politeness in c-e translation363.3 summary39chapter 4 relevance theory in the translation of business letters404.1 key points of relevance theory404.1.1 ostensive-inferential communication404.1.2 context and cognitive environment414.2 relevance theory in translation424.2.1 optimal relevance in translation424.2.2 writer, translator and target text reader434.2.3 relevance and cross-cultural communication444.3 relevance theory in the translation of business letters444.3.1 vague language in business letters444.3.2 relevance and the translation of vague language in business letters45conclusion51major findings of the research51limitations and suggestions51revelations for the teaching of translation51bibliography53acknowledgments55list of tablestable 1comparison between daily expressions and expressions in business letters.48list of figuresfigure 1 translating process in rt 42abbreviations bisubeijing international study universityc-echinese to englishcpcooperative principlee-cenglish to chineseftasface-threatening actspppoliteness principlertrelevance theoryscsource cultureslsource languagestsource texttctarget culturetltarget languagetttarget textintroductionwith the development of economic globalization and the expansion of transnational corporations, the cooperation and trade between china and other countries are booming and deepening. china, the largest exporter and the largest market in the world, is conducting an unprecedented exchange with the world. as the primary form of business communication, business letters play an indispensable role in commercial activities and contribute considerably to the rapid development of international trade and business. business letters do not only provide information of products and services of one company, but also help it to maintain and improve the relations with its business partners. therefore, a well-translated business letter counts much in international business. it can convey the information that is equivalent to the original letter, which is necessary to both parties of the communication. however, an only literally translated business letter is not only hard to express the pragmatic meaning of the original letter, but also misleading to its reader sometimes, which will affect the success of a transaction. it is urgent to conduct more researches on the translation of business letters. for many centuries, translation researchers and practitioners have been working hard to look for the effective and proper ways to convey the intended meaning of the source language (sl) with the target language (tl). they proposed various theories from different perspectives. many translators try to obtain the equivalence between the two languages and regard equivalence as the ideal aim for their translation. according to eugene nidas (1982:12) functional equivalence theory, translating is interpreted as “reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style.” peter newmark (1988:5)defines translation as “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text.” as translation study and interdisciplinary research develops, pragmatics has been introduced to translation studies. pragmatic approach to translation throws a new light upon translation study and provides a strong explaining capacity to translation practice. especially the application of politeness principle (pp) and relevance theory (rt) provides a significant guidance to the translation of business letters. to achieve pragmatic equivalence is the ideal goal of the translation of business letters. among all the pragmatic theories, pp and rt are adopted because they offer much powerful explanatory capacity to the translation of business letters. business letters pay much attention to politeness, which is determined by its nature and functions. politeness in business letter translation helps to create a friendly atmosphere, settle disputes, solve problems and improve the relations between partners. several strategies are recommended in this thesis to achieve politeness equivalence in the translation of business letters. rt believes translation is a complicated activity involving a dual ostensive-inferential process and requires the translator to be both a receptor of the source text and a communicator of the target text in translation. it also requires the translator to produce the maximum contextual effect so that the target text reader can infer the communicative intention of the source text reader with minimal effort. this thesis selects enough examples to illustrate the application of the two theories. pragmatic translation becomes increasingly important and more and more researchers realize its huge power in translation. the pragmatic study of the translation of business letters provides a new angle of research in this area. it is hoped that this research can produce some positive results to the study of business letter translation. chapter 1 an overall analysis of the translation of business letters1.1 an overview of business letters effective communication is critical for the success of business transactions. as the primary form of business communication, business letters play an indispensable role in commercial activities and contribute considerably to the rapid development of international trade and business. business letters do not only provide information of products and services of one company, but also help it to maintain and improve the relations with its business partners. 1.1.1 nature of business lettersbusiness letters are a written form of conversation by post in which the participants with definite purposes take turns to address their counterparts and wait for their response in order to achieve their desired results. as both parties of this type of communication are separated by time and space, they can not see each other or even have never met each other. how can they obtain mutual trust? apart from the information they get from the chamber of commerce, banks or governmental organizations, how well their counterparts do in dealing with business letters counts much. in business world, good writing means good business. words are as important as figures. words make sales, create good will, win new customers and hold old ones. words can obtain credit, gets bills paid, report on new ideas and products, and launch sales campaigns. if one party can do as well as his/her partner expects, then he/she will be considered as trustworthy. take enquiry as an example. an importer sends an enquiry asking for quotation or other information to an exporter. if the exporters reply to the enquiry is prompt, courteous, helpful and well-written, the importer will have a very positive impression of the exporter and may be glad to cooperate with him.business letters play an indispensable role in business communication because they can convey and retain the message clearly and effectively. a well-written business letter can not only provide the information of products or services of one company, but also can cope with or improve the relations with its customers. usually face-to-face talk is usually considered as the best way of communication. but it is not possible for those businessmen to meet each other face-to-face every time because it is too time-consuming and the cost will be high, especially in international trade. whats more, even after a face-to-face meeting, the company still needs to sort out a written record. oral communication like phone call or video conference can get the information across. but they have to calculate cost on the one hand and consider the effect on the other because a statistics shows that people can only retain about 25 percent of what they hear. oral communication tends to result in misunderstanding or even forgetting about the message. and it is difficult to explain some complicated and professional ideas in oral communication. consequently, compared with other forms, letters are still the best choice because it is accurate, reliable, and cost-efficient. business letters have different forms according to their different purposes, ranging from letters of establishing business relations, letters of enquiry, letters of offer and counter-offer, letters of quotation, to letters of complaints, letters of collection, letters of credit, etc. as modern information technology develops, many new ways of communication like telex, instant message system have emerged. but business letters (including e-mail and fax) still dominate in business communication because of the various functions it fulfils. 1.1.2 functions of business lettersbusiness letters perform a variety of functions. from linguistic perspective, it has three functions: informative function, which means business letter can provide information to the counterparts, even advertise the company sometimes; impersonal function, which means it just serves as a way of exchanging ideas of the participants and it also helps to set up and improve relations with business partners; and imperative function, which means it is helpful to arouse the attention, even urge the reader to give response or take actions as the writer expects. from practical perspective, business letters fulfill the following functions. first, they serve as a written contract, having legal power and binding to both parties. for example, as long as either party accepts the offer or counter-offer of the other, it means a contract has been signed. in addition, business letters also function as companys business record and publicity materials. they help to build up the image of the company, to create good will, to win new clients and keep the old ones. 1.2 linguistic features of business lettersthe nature and functions of business letters determine its linguistic features which meanwhile exert great influence on its translation. next the linguistic features of business letters will be explored from both lexical and syntactic perspectives. 1.2.1 lexical features a. use of formal wordsas a product of careful and long-time pondering, business letters are very formal writing, in which a large number of formal words are commonly used. although it tends to be colloquial in form recent years, formal and common words are still much more commonly used than informal words, which demonstrates the importance of formality and politeness in business letters. (1) we are pleased to advice you that your order no. 103 has been dispatched in accordance with your instruction. (zhang & li, 2003: 165)in this sentence, the formal words “advice” “dispatch” and “in accordance with” replace “tell”, “send” and “by” or “under” respectively. (2) we will meet you half way by offering a discount of 5% in view of our long pleasant relations. (ibid) in this sentence, the use of “in view of” instead of “for” shows its formality. (3) all offers and sales are subject to the terms and conditions printed on the reverse side hereof. (ibid)in this sentence, the use of the archaic word “hereof” which means “of the offer letter” is another way of showing formality. there are many other examples, using “duplicate” instead of “copy”, “otherwise” instead of “or”, “with regarding to” instead of “about”, etc. b. use of termsanother lexical feature of business letters is the use of terms, which are accurate and professional in conveying meaning. terms are an unalienable part of business letters. they are used to express some specific facts and convey business concepts. the use of terms helps to save time, improve efficiency, avoid ambiguity and lower the cost. these terms have been summed up in the long-standing business practice and become idiomatic. those words take on the meanings specialized in business circle and seem much different from their meanings in common english.business terms are used in business letters. for example, the word “quotation” means “a group of words or a short piece of writing taken from a book, play, speech, etc. and repeated because it is interesting or useful”(引用) in common english. but it means “a written statement of exactly how much money something will cost”（报价单） as a business term. there are other examples like, “acceptance”, “collection”, “draft”, “negotiate”, “offer”, etc. besides, some professional terms are also employed in business letters. for example “average” means “the amount calculated by adding together several quantities and then dividing this amount by the total number of quantities”(平均数) in common english. but it takes on the meaning of “damage to or loss of a ship or the goods it carries”（海损）in insurance. there are other examples like “coverage” “policy” “premium” “underwriter” in insurance, “bill of exchange” “invoice” “debit and credit” “loan” “reimburse” in banking, “arbitration” “penalty” in law, “liner & charter ” “demurrage & dispatch money” “seaworthiness” in ocean transport, etc. in addition to business and professional terms, some abbreviations of terms also appear in business letters. for example, cif (cost, insurance and freight), fob (free on board), l/c (letter of credit), icc (international chamber of commerce), imf (international monetary fund), ft (foot), pcs (pieces), ctns (cartons), fcl (full container load ), etc. furthermore, some words having different meanings in common english acquire similar meanings in business areas, such as offer and quotation, pamphlet, brochure and sales literature, financial standing and reputation, contract and confirmation and so on. in addition, business writing absorbs many foreign words into english in the communication with other countries. for example, “bona fide” (genuine, real or legal) and “status quo” (present situation) from latin, “del credere” (payment guaranteed) from italian, “litchi” “ma