A Report On E-C Translation Of Legal Documents For Real Estate Sales Based On Newmark’s Text Typology Theory

With the growth of global economy and people’s living standards,the real estate industry has occupied an increasingly important position in the national economy of different countries.More and more Chinese choose to buy houses in foreign countries while many foreigners invest in real estate in China.Reading and studying the legal texts of real estate sales has become an indispensable step of multinational purchases.Accurate translation of these legal documents will help buyers and sellers to clarify their rights and obligations.But in China,few studies were carried out on the translation of legal documents concerning real estate,which hardly meets the market demands.Therefore,the report is about an E-C translation of a real estate sales agreement regulating the building area,date of delivery,payment,and rights and obligations of both the Promoter and the Allottee,as well as an excerpt from the Real Estate(Management and Development)Regulations Act(RERA)of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in India in 2017,setting rules for the registration of real estate project and real estate agent.The source text has more than 12,000 words.The real estate sales agreement is based on the RERA,which restricts and regulates the implementation of the former.Guided by Peter Newmark’s text typology,the content,characteristics and functions of the original text were analyzed.It was classified into informative text mainly,based on which the strategies of communicative translation and semantic translation put forward by Newmark were adopted accordingly.The report firstly introduces the background,content and significance of the translation task and records the task process,including time-planning,pre-task preparation,while-task works,and post-task quality control.Then,after an introduction to Newmark’s text typology and translation strategy,translation techniques including diction,lexical conversion,omission and amplification at the lexical level were analyzed,among which diction was adopted to the translation of real estate terms,legal words,common words and modal verbs,lexical conversion was used in translation of nominalized words,omission was applied to tackle repetition.Translation techniques at the syntactic level concerning sentences with passive voice and long and complicated sentences were discussed as well.The use of techniques was aimed at conforming to the common criterion of semantic translation and communicative translation: an accurate delivery of the meaning of the source text.Based on the translation task,the author realized that a qualified translator should read more translation theories,apply the theoretical essence into translation practice and reflect on the problems encountered in translation so as to improve his translation skills in the future.The report is intended to provide a reference for the Chinese translation of English legal documents of real estate sales and for the Chinese planning to invest in real estate in foreign countries.