比较视角下探析英文商务合同文本特征

A Tentative Study of the Textual Features of English Business Contract

随着中国加入WTO,越来越多的企业由原来的国内市场转向国际市场。随着对外贸易的增加,人们越来越多地接触到商务合同。了解合同、翻译合同显得越发迫切与重要。商务合同作为一种独特的文本形式,在词汇、句法、篇章方面都有区别于其他文本的特征。由于英汉两种语言的差异,以及文化、历史、政治等诸多因素的影响,准确地理解并阐释合同文本成为摆在翻译工作者面前的一大挑战,也自然成为确保经济活动顺利进行的重要因素。这也是笔者作为一名英语工作者着手该文的初衷,笔者尝试从文本核心的词句特征对合同进行了分析和探讨。希望可以帮助翻译工作者加深对英文合同文本的了解,促进翻译过程的顺利完成。

With China's accession to WTO, more and more companies shift their focus of attention from domestic market to the overseas market. For the Chinese companies, the more overseas trade means the greater exposure to English business context. Con-tract, among others, will be the first and toughest nut to crack. Naturally, understanding contract correctly is always high in a com-pany's priority. Differences between cultures, politics, and histories etc. have shaped different contracts. And this poses great chal-lenge to translators in the way that they are supposed to have a strong awareness of both cultural influences on contract and the dis-tinctive features of contract as compared to other texts. Here lies the purpose of this study-to analyze the textual features of Eng-lish business contract for a better translation work.