The Application Of Register And Schema Theory On Business English Translation

With the increasing trend of globalization, the international business cooperation is highly frequent. As a tool of international communication, business English has already become a kind of ESP (English for Special Purpose). Therefore, business English translation is highly demanded. However, on the other hand, the study of Business English Translation is somewhat neglected and consequently its quality is undesirable. Some translation theorists have prejudice against business translation and regard it as something that does not appeal to refined taste and can hardly match literary translation. The texts of this kind are thought of as simple and stereotyped, and it is believed that anyone who is bilingual and has some knowledge of international business can do the translation. In order to rebut the bias between the practical demand and theoretical research, the author of this thesis tries to prove the complexity of Business English Translation and heighten its academic position by applying Register and Schema Theory into Business English Translation on the basis of the features of Business English in contrast with Common English. The exploration is conducted from the aspects of Linguistics and Psychology.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one is the introduction mainly explaining the significance of business English translation, the current studies of business English translation at home and abroad and the overview of the thesis.As the theoretic basis of the thesis, chapter two introduces the Register Theory put forward by the linguist Halliday and the Schema Theory first brought forward by the German philosopher Kant. Register Theory is the important theory in Systematic Functional Grammar, it means that Language varies according to the background and situation in which it is used, and these varieties of language can be referred to as registers. The register has three categories: field, tenor and mode. Schema Theory believes that people's understanding of the input information is based on whether they have relative background knowledge before, and it emphasizes the role of the prior knowledge in the understanding of language. There are three kinds of schema: language schema, content schema and structure schema. The author of the thesis combines the Register Theory in Linguistics and the Schema Theory in cognition to tackle Business English Translation from the linguistic and cognitive basis.Chapter three touches detailedly on the characteristics of business English from four aspects: lexical level, syntactic level, textual level and social level. From the lexical aspect, business English is featured by technical vocabulary, abundant abbreviations and compounds, plenty of archaisms and loanwords; in the syntactic level, there are three features: prominence of long sentences, frequent use of declarative sentences and a large number of sentences with fixed expressions; in the textual phase, there are four features: settled pattern, formal and brief language, accurate and strict style, polite tone; finally socially, business English is featured by its sense of purpose, informativeness and cultural background.In chapter four, which is practical part of the thesis, the two theories described in chapter two are combined with the specific characteristics of business English. First, three basic principles for business translation are presented in this chapter on the basis of the distinct features of business English, that is, faithfulness, accuracy and conciseness. Then according to Register theory and Schema theory, together with the features of business English, five processes for a better business English translation are put forward in the final part of this chapter. The author believes that as long as the translator can reflect accurately the field, tenor and mode in business activities on the basis of his language, content and structure schema in his memory, business English translation could be done successfully and perfectly.Chapter five is the conclusion summarizing the whole thesis and suggests some requirements for the business translators.