The Translation Of Contracts-Principles, Features And Strategies

With China's entry into WTO and playing a more and more important role in international transaction, business communications across the borders are substantially increasing which stimulates the demand of contract translation as a certain result. Translation of contracts has thus drawn the interests of translators and scholars. It is under these circumstances that the author of this thesis embarks on the exploration of the theoretical basis and practical measures of contract translation.To develop translation competence, contract translators need instruction in translation theory as well as practice. In Chapter One, after briefly reviewing the origins and development of legal translation, the thesis cites the overlapped theoretical aspects of translation principles. Like general translation principles, the principles for contract translation may be regarded as a principle in action if it helps translators become responsible decision-makers in terms of"Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance"or"ä¿¡,è¾¾,é›…"in Chinese. Chapter Two of this thesis addresses the lexical and grammatical features of contract translation, which is to fulfill the main task by means of the analysis of words, terms and paragraphs in contract translation as an act of communication, thus making it necessary to redefine the characteristics of contract translation.As to practical aspects of the subject matter, Chapter Three makes analysis on the errors made in the process of contract translation, including Grammatical Errors, Mechanical Translation Errors and Laymen Errors. Then Chapter Four puts forward the options as strategies for the translation of contracts by the means of Paraphrasing, Finding the Functional Equivalence, Literal Translation,Accurate Selection of Modality and Vague Words for Vague Words.Through contrastive study of translation examples, the objective of this thesis is to highlight the importance that the translation of contracts -as the communicating tool of a very specialized community- has in the wording of the text itself, as well as the differences that can be drawn between various types of legal systems with an international projection in large-scale business transactions today.