Functional Equivalence in the Translation of Chinese Company Profiles

Acknowledgement

This thesis is completed under the guidance of teacher Huang Hui. I was deeply inspired by her serious scientific attitude, rigorous scholarship, improving work style. But for her ardent backing, this thesis wouldn’t have been made even remotely possible. Beyond that, I am also obliged to the teachers and professors of the English Department: Mr. Zheng Youqi, my head teacher, who has always been impassioned in instructing me and Zhang Jun, my advanced English teacher who proves to be competent, professional and ready to help.

I, on this account, would like to dedicate this piece to the aforementioned earnest proponents, and yet words seem to fail me when I try to extend my innermost gratefulness to them all again.

Contents

I. Introduction - 6 -

1.1.Necessity of translating company profiles - 6 -

1.2 Structure of the paper - 6 -

2. Company profiles - 7 -

2.1 Definition - 7 -

2.2 Contents - 7 -

2.3 Functions - 7 -

2.4 Language features - 8 -

3. Functional equivalence theory - 9 -

3.1 Evolution - 9 -

3.2 Definition - 10 -

3.3 Cardinal ideas - 11 -

3.4 Basic requirements - 11 -

4. Functional equivalence theory in the translation of Chinese company profiles - 12 -

4.1 At word and phrasal level - 12 -

4.1.1 Transliteration - 12 -

4.1.2 Semantic translation - 13 -

4.1.3 Borrowing - 13 -

4.2 At sentence level - 14 -

4.2.1 Generalization - 14 -

4.2.2 Specification - 14 -

4.2.3 Interpretation - 15 -

4.2.4 Rewriting - 16 -

5. Conclusion - 16 -

References - 17 -

Functional Equivalence in the Translation of

Chinese Company Profiles

Liu Xin

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: In the context of economic globalization, involvement in international trade has become the choice of most Chinese enterprises. Therefore, a well-translated company profile is critical. However, as most of the business managers take it for granted that anyone who has studied English can do the job well, many problems arise, which will inevitably harm the image of the enterprise. To this end, the present writer of this dissertation holds that finding a solution to the enterprise profile translation problem is necessary. And the main reason behind these translation problems is a violation of Nida's functional equivalence theory in that the theory acts as a guiding principle when it comes to translation of company profiles.

Key words: Chinese enterprises profiles; functional equivalence；translation

摘要：在经济全球化以及中国加入世贸组织的影响下，参与到国际贸易中已经变成大部分中国企业者的选择。因此,一份良好的公司简介翻译至关重要。然而，由于大多数企业管理者想当然地认为任何学习过英语的人都能够做好这项工作，这样的理解误区导致了问题的出现，从而在某种程度上损害企业的形象。鉴于这点，本文作者认为研究企业简介翻译并且找到解决方案是有必要的。这些翻译问题的出现主要是违反了奈达的功能对等理论,而他的理论正是我们指导翻译公司简介时的主要依据。

关键词：中国企业简介；功能对等；翻译

I. Introduction

1.1.Necessity of translating company profiles

Owing to the fact that the economy and society are burgeoning, China’s national policy, i.e., reform and opening–up policy, has stepped into a new stage when China becomes a member of the WTO. According to customs statistics, the development of exports and imports of 2014 in China has two unique traits. First of all, China’s status as No.1 trading power is bolstered. Second, foreign trade makes significant contributions to the economic growth. When being confronted with the situation where the domestic economy is on decline, exports and imports contribute a great deal in propping up the development of the economy, which means that an growing number of Chinese enterprises are participating and will participate in international business activities. Therefore, publicity of these companies overseas becomes too important to be neglected．

The translation of company profiles is without doubt one kind of publicity. A well-translated company profile can boost its popularity so as to have greater access to international markets. Company profile serves as a special text type, the ultimate goal of which is to help enterprises to set up a perfect corporate image, sell their products, and expand their scope of services, thus enhancing their competitive edge. Such is also the case in terms of the objective of the translation of company profiles. Yet, when we translate those profiles, we can find that problems still exist in there, such as mistranslation, inaccurate understanding, over-translation and under-translation, unnatural rendering, Chinglish and so on. These problems greatly influence those enterprises’ external advertisement, thus making companies unable to expand the market and make profits. Hence the necessity of translating public signs properly is well-grounded and the rectification of inappropriate translation calls for special attention.

1.2 Structure of the paper

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