A Study On Applying Functional Equivalence To E-C Business Translation

Business English is a special variety of English used in business contexts. It differs from general English not only in purpose and significance, but also in word choice, sentence structure and textual style. Business letters are the written tools of business and language communications. They involve the economic benefits as well as the communicative goals of both the importers and the exporters. The whole thesis,guided by Nida's functional equivalence theory, mainly explores the features and business English translation methods. According to Nida's functional equivalence theory, the equivalence is firstly studied in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.The whole thesis is conducted in five chapters. Chapter One introduces the study background for business translation. In Chapter Two, the author describes the equivalence theory from word, sentence and textual level of equivalence from the functional point of view. A detailed analysis of functional equivalence is made at lexical level, syntactic level and textual level, which is established on cohesion and coherence. It analyzes the semantic features and stylistic features in business English. In addition, other factors such as the difference between western culture and Chinese culture must be taken into account. Chapter three covering the theoretical basis of the study and the development of the theory illustrates Nida's functional equivalence theory systematically. Formal equivalence is subordinate to functional equivalence, and it is necessary to make the distinction. Due to the difference between the two languages and cultures, the translator should resort to inversion, conversion, omission etc. to make the translated text not only explicit but also authentic. That is what the writer expounds in chapter four. It applies semantic equivalence and stylistic equivalence to word level, sentence level and textual level to produce equivalent translation. That is to say, the writer works out several translation principles and strategies for business pragmatic texts under the guidance of functional-equivalence theory. The last part serves as a conclusion. It is hoped that the study can provide guidance on business English in practical application.