A Report On The Translation Of Non-Exclusive Agreement From The Perspective Of Catford’s Shift-Theory

Contract translation is an inseparable part in business cooperation and assumes enormous significance for each party,so ensuring the quality of translation is the top priority of contract translation practice.The essence of translation is to establish equivalence between source language and target language.According to Catford’s translation theory,there are two major categories of equivalence in languages: formal equivalence and meaning equivalence,the theory of translation shifts can be divided into two categories: level shifts and category shift.The author has participated in the translation process of Tianjin Green Island’s“Non-Exclusive Distribution Agreement”(hereinafter referred to as“Agreement”).In the process of the author’s translation practice,the translation theory proposed by Catford was used as a guide to find the equivalent parts of translated language and source language.Under the guidance of Catford’s translation this paper analyzes specific cases to make a summary from the following aspects: the characteristics of the Agreement,the application of level shifts in practice,and the application of category shift in practice.The study finds that Catford’s translation theory is appropriate for contract translation.Level shifts are reflected in the display of the inflection of the certain terms.Under the framework of category shift,structure shifts are the transformation of the grammatical structure,which is more common in the transformation between positive and negative forms,the conversion between active and passive voices,the change of the position of grammatical components,and the structure of sentences;Word formation is most typical of class shifts;Unit shifts are mostly used in long sentences and clause translations,including shifts between words and phrases,and conversion between sentences and phrases.Therefore,the use of Catford’s shifts theory in contract translation practice can guide the translator to analyze the language structure in depth with the aim of achieving equivalence between target language and source language at the levels of form and meaning,and adopt different translation shift strategies in different situations.