Abstract:

This thesis aims at discussing the translation of business English correspondence under the guidance of Relevance Theory, a theory that can provide a brand-new perspective of translation and help people understand the advantages and limitations of different approach to translation. The important concepts and basic viewpoints of Relevance Theory will be stated to help readers to understand the theoretical framework. Then the characteristics of business English correspondence will be discussed. In addition, comparison of Relevance Theory with other translation theories, say, Functional Equivalence Theory and Text Typology, is made to illustrate Relevance Theory’s own advantages when it is applied to the translation of business correspondence. And the discussion of Relevance Theory’s application to business English correspondence will be developed by a number of translation examples of business English correspondence.

Key words: Relevance Theory; translation; business English correspondence

摘要：

本文旨在从关联理论的角度，探讨商务英语函电的翻译。关联理论的为翻译提供了一种全新的角度，部分源于对比原文和译文的理论具有局限性且存在大量例外，而从交际的角度看翻译，很好地解决了这一问题。本文以关联理论的几个重要概念和基本观点为起点，在明确理论框架的基础上，结合商务英语函电自身的特点，例举商务英语函电的翻译实例，对关联理论角度的商务英语函电翻译进行论述。并通过与其他翻译理论的比较，阐释关联理论在指导商务英语函电翻译的独特优势，为广大商务英语学习者提供参考。

关键词：商务英语函电; 关联理论; 翻译

1. Introduction
With the rapid development of economy, especially with China’s entry into WTO, foreign trade activities have become an integral part of China’s economic development. As a communication tool widely used in international business, business correspondence play an important role in transactions. When people make international communication, English is universally adopted by most people. Therefore, Business English Correspondence and its translation certainly deserve people’s attention. Recent years in China, various theories have been applied to translation of Business English Correspondence, for example, the Text Typology Theory proposed by New Mark (1985) and Functional Equivalence proposed by Nida (1964). The former suggests that different translation methods should be applied to different types of texts and business texts should be translated base on its texts type. The latter aims to find corresponding expressions in the target language to help the target readers understand the content even without any knowledge of the original text’s cultural background. In this thesis, I want to discuss the translation of Business English Correspondence from the perspective of Relevance Theory.