ABSTRACT

As one of the main forms of business communication, business correspondence plays an irreplaceable role in business activities. The quality of business correspondence translation will affect the success of communication. Looking at the domestic and international business correspondence translation, we can see that they focused mostly on the communication function of business letters rather than the interpersonal messaging function, that is, on the language itself, rather than seeing it as a communicative means. Because business letters involve economic interests of all parties concerned translation of business correspondence puts forward higher requirements for the translator.

   However, most of the current studies of English business correspondence translation are done from the perspective of information function, that is, the translation of word to word, phrase to phrase and from the perspective of English grammar, such as the translation of subjunctive mood and passive voice. It is very important to focus on the interpersonal function of language in the process of English business correspondence, but not until the sixties and seventies of last century have linguists begun to study the principles of cooperation and politeness in English business letters in a large scale, and few papers have studied the translation of English business  correspondence based on different business backgrounds or combining the background with English grammar. 

    Therefore, this paper combines “7C” (namely Completeness, Clearness, Concreteness, Conciseness, Correctness, Courtesy, Consideration） Principle，Leech's Politeness Principle and Nida's dynamic equivalence theory with relevant examples to analyze the approaches of English business correspondence translation.

Key words: English Business Correspondence; Translation; Pragmatics

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One  INTRODUCTION-1

Chapter Two  LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 An Overview of Business Correspondence-3

2.1.1 Functions of English Business Correspondence-3

2.1.2 Features of English Business Correspondence-4

2.2 Existing Studies on the Translation of English Business Correspondence at Home and Abroad -5

2.3 Limitations in Existing Studies-6

Chapter Three  THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS-7

3.1 Introduction of Pragmatics-7

3.2 Pragmatic Equivalence in Translation-8

 3.2.1 Equivalence Theories in Translation Studies.. 8

3.2.2 Pragmatic Equivalence..... .9

3.3 Politeness Principle-11

3.4 7C Principle-12

Chapter Four  PRAGMATIC TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE-14

4.1 7C Principle in Translation of English Business Correspondence-14

4.2 Politeness Principle in Translation of English Business Correspondence-17

Chapter Five  CONCLUSION-19

REFERENCES-20