Abstract

Along with the world globalization, the connection among countries is close. And the expansion of the international trade and business activity becomes more frequent. Our economy mainly depends on export. Thus, foreign trade plays an important role in our economy activity. People need to draft a contract to protect their profits. English Business Contract is a legally binding document. Its language is very complicated. Translating a contract is a very difficult task for many people. People may face some problems when they understand and translate the contract. If not fully understanding the contract, people may make mistakes while translating, which may damage company’s fame and result in economic loss. In order to make people understand the contract better and translate it correctly, this paper is to discuss language characteristics and translation of English Business Contract from the aspects of lexical, phrasal and syntactic feature.

Key words: language characteristics; business contract; translation strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Literature Review-2

3 The Language Characteristics of English Business Contract-3

3.1 The Lexical Features of English Business Contract-3

3.1.1 The Archaic Words-3

3.1.2 Modal Verbs-4

3.1.3 Load Words-4

3.2 Phrasal Features of the English Business Contract-5

3.2.1 Nominal Phrase-5

3.2.2 Prepositional Phrase-5

3.3 Syntactic Features of English Business Contract-6

3.3.1 Passive Voiced Sentences-6

3.3.2 Long Sentences-6

4 The Translation of English Business Contract-7

4.1 The Principles of Translating English Business Contract-7

4.1.1 Faithfulness-8

4.1.2 Exactness-8

4.1.3 Consistency-9

4.2 The Strategies of Translating English Business Contract-9

4.2.1 Mastering the Usage of Archaic Words-10

4.2.2 Strengthening the Learning of Modal Verbs-11

4.2.3 Being Knowledgeable about Foreign Trade-13

4.2.4 Mastering the Phrasal Feature-14

4.2.5 Improving the Ability of Analyzing Sentences-15

5 Conclusion-16

References-17