E-C Translation of Business Letters —— From the Perspective of Skopos Theory

Abstract    With the gradual deepening of the reform and opening-up and the process of economic globalization, the economic connection between our country and other countries is getting closer and closer, especially after China's successful accession to the World Trade Organization。 In such a whole environment, business letters’ role in international trade, serving as a bridge is more and more obvious。Therefore, the translation of business letters is definitively important。 Qualified translation of business letters can effectively promote trade activities; on the contrary , it will lead to the failure of trade and hinder the development of economy。86948

     In 1990s, Skopos Theory first entered China。 After that, in order to explore it, a variety of academic articles ceaselessly came out from all angles。 This theory holds that as a kind of behavior, translation is also required to achieve certain purposes。 Three rules should be followed under the guidance of the theory: Skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule。 Skopos rule refers that the purpose of translation determines the overall process of translation。 As a practical text, business letters has the function of transmitting information to achieve cooperation, thus its E-C translation’s purpose is to strengthen communication and realize transactions。 However, business letters have its unique linguistic features, such as correctness, completeness, formality, profession, courtesy and so on, which make some difficulties in the actual E-C translation process。 However, based on Vermeer's Skopos Theory, there is no doubt that studying the application of Skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule in the E-C translation of business letters will help the development of translation activities。

     In this paper, from the perspective of Skopos Theory, combining with the characteristics of business letters, the author proposes that in E-C translation of business letters, translators should pay attention to the purpose and language characteristics of the letter itself, and adopt the corresponding translation strategies and techniques。 Through the analysis of Skopos Theory, the author summarizes the effective translation techniques from the perspective of Skopos Theory: first, emphasizing on the principle of correctness and accurate delivery of the information of the source text; second, deleting the source text according to the style Convention; third, omitting the source text according to the different language forms; forth, adjusting the source text according to the cultural differences and fifth, using fixed translation。 

Keywords: Skopos Theory; business letters; features; translation techniques

目的论视角下的商务信函英译汉研究

摘  要随着中国改革开放和经济全球化的逐步深化，特别是在我国成功加入世界贸易组织之后,我国与其他国家的经济交往日趋频繁。在这样一个大环境下，商务信函翻译在国际贸易中的桥梁作用也越来越明显。而商务信函翻译的质量在贸易实务中则显得至关重要。高质量的商务信函翻译能有效促进贸易活动的开展，反之则会导致贸易的失败，阻碍经济的发展。

在20世纪90年代，目的论首次传入中国，之后从各个角度对目的论进行探讨的学术文章层出不穷。该理论认为，翻译作为某种行为，也要达到某种目的。目的论指导下的翻译要遵循三大原则:忠实原则、连贯原则和目的原则。目的原则是指翻译行为的目的决定了翻译的整体过程。商务信函作为一种实用型文本，具有传递信息，达成合作的作用，其英译汉翻译因而就具有加强交流，实现交易的目的。然而，商务信函有其独特语言特点，比如正确、完整、形式简洁、专业、礼貌等等。这使得在实际的汉译过程中往往存在一些困难。而以费米尔的功能目的论为基础，探讨目的性原则、连贯性原则和忠实性原则在商务信函汉译中的运用无疑有助于翻译活动的开展。