Abstract

With the rapid development of world economy, business English contracts have become an indispensable linguistic communication tool in international trade, and have been applied in various world economic activities. Compared with general articles, business English contracts are strict in structure and logic, and concise. Therefore, mastering the linguistic features and translation techniques of business English contracts is particularly important.
This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part analyzes the linguistic features of business English contracts mainly from word, sentence and text. First, the thesis analyzes the lexical features of business English contracts from formal words, archaic words, legal terms and technical terms, loanwords, modal verbs and avoiding polysemy; then it analyzes the syntactic features from long sentences, conditional sentences and nominalization structures; finally, it analyzes the text features from being rigorous in structure, using active voice instead of passive voice, using present tense instead of future tense, using direct expressions instead of indirect expressions and using appropriate fuzzy expressions. The second part introduces two translation theories which can be applied to translate business English contracts: seeking similarity in spirit rather than in shape and perfect model. The third part introduces the translation techniques of business English contracts from word, sentence and text.

Key words: business English contracts; linguistic features; translation techniques

摘  要

在世界经济高速发展的今天，商务英语合同已经成为国际贸易中不可或缺的语言交流工具，并被应用在各种世界经济活动中。与一般文章相比，商务英语合同结构严谨、逻辑严密和言简意赅。因此，掌握商务英语合同的语言特征和翻译技巧尤为重要。
论文分为三个部分。第一部分主要从单词、句子和文本来分析商务英语合同的语言特征。论文首先从常见词、古体词、法律术语、外来词、情态动词和避免歧义分析商务英语合同的词汇特征；其次，论文从长句、条件句和名词性结构来分析商务英语合同的句子特征；最后论文从严谨的结构、使用主动语态代替被动语态、现在时代替将来时、直接表达代替间接表达和使用适当的模糊表达来分析商务英语合同的文本特征。第二部分介绍了两种适用于翻译商务英语合同的翻译理论：重神似不重形似和化境说。第三部分从单词、句子和文本等方面探讨了商务英语合同的翻译技巧。

关键词：商务英语合同；语言特征；翻译技巧