On C-E Translation Principles For Official Speeches In Business

Official speeches in business are usually political writings on China's economic situations and policies, given on international occasions by Chinese government officials. They are translated for the purpose of having China's economic situations and policies, and stance known. Stylistically, as a hybrid of argumentation and exposition, logic relations clearly embodied in topic sentences, clause complex, and text structure are essential in C-E translation. However, four typical problems have been found in the C-E translation of official speeches such as:(1) Non-equivalence in information focus; (2) Non-equivalence in logic-semantic relations; (3) Inappropriate word order; (4) Lack of cohesion in target texts. This thesis has explored Chinese-English translation principles for official speeches in business, mainly to solve these problems.Based on foreign and domestic translation studies, this theoretical exploration has tried to propose three working translation principles:(1) Logic thought-oriented equivalence in information focus, proposing that translators should endeavor to identify information focus in source texts in accordance with original logic thought so as to realize it in target language; (2) Information focus-centered explicit semantic relations, prescribing that adjustments in many cases should be made to make the original implicit semantic relations explicit. Translators are required to indentify information focus in source texts, and then make semantic relations explicit in accordance with target language; (3) Thought pattern-oriented rearrangement of information, which means a change of the original natural coherence into salient coherence by rearrangement of information distribution. Principles (2) and (3) are subject to principle (1). The applicability of these principles, justifiably tested with a careful analysis of about 30 examples, is followed by specific translation strategies presented.This research is both theoretical and practical for our improving the C-E translation of official speeches in business in China. With the creative principles as theoretical contributions to the development of Chinese-English practical translation studies, the achievements in this research are proved applicable to solve those C-E translation problems in official speeches in business and helpful to enhance the translation quality in China.