1、On the Linguistic Features and Translation of Business English Contract【Abstract】Owning to Chinas opening up to the outside world and its entry into WTO， Sino-foreign communication in the field of business is on the rise day by day. Business English contracts play an important role in business commu
2、nication， and consequently its translation has been put on agenda and draws much attention from translators and scholars. 【Key words】Business English contract；Linguistic features； E-C translation 1 Definition of Business English Contract The definition of contract in the Chinas Contract Law stresses
3、 its functions， saying that “A contract refers to an agreement establishing， modifying and terminating the civil rights and obligations between subjects of equal footing， that is； between natural persons， legal persons or other organizations”. （The 2nd article， Chinas Contract law） According to the
4、definition， we can summarize the legal features of contracts as follows： （1）The establishing of a contract is a legal behavior. Contractual parties， for a certain legal purpose， establish a relationship of rights and obligations （2）Contract is an agreement between two or more parties， but not any ki
5、nd of agreement is a contract （3）Contract is established between people on equal footings 2 Translation for Business English Contract Since there is a great disparity between English and Chinese sentence structures， translators should learn to tackle them discriminatingly. As for the concrete approa
6、ches adopted in the translation of a typical English sentence， five techniques are available in translating long sentences in English：embedding， cutting， reversing， splitting， and recasting （1） Embedding Embedding necessitates post-modifiers （including phrases and clauses） to be converted into pre-m
7、odifiers， thus modifiers are embedded in Chinese sentences. As discussed previously， as long as transformed modifiers are not lengthy or complicated， this reversion can optimize a compact and concise version. Therefore， the technique of embedding is frequently adopted in translating attributive， app
8、ositive clauses and adverbials of cause， condition， premise， etc. This has been previously discussed in greater detail in the translation of nominal structures and adverbial modifiers Example： Any party dissatisfied with the judgment may， within 15 days upon receipt of the said judgment， file an app
9、eal to the next upper Peoples Court.（Chen Jianping，2005：96） 如不服本判决的一方，可于接到判决之日起十五日内向上一级法院提起上诉 （2） Cutting By means of cutting， we may sever a long English sentence， rearrange the parts in sense groups， and then translate them separately into Chinese. To be exact， the technique of cutting can be adop
10、ted under three occasions Example ： Any disputes， controversies or differences which may arise between the parties in connection with this contract may be referred to arbitration.（Chen Jianping，2005：98） 有关本合同买卖之间所引起得任何纠纷，可付诸仲裁 （3） Reversing The technique of reversing enables translators to reverse，
11、partly or completely， the sequence of a given sentence so as to conform to the inherent sense groups or Chinese usage. The technique， optional as it is， may be employed only when the adherence to the original word order may rouse confusion （4） Splitting The technique of splitting is to rip some awkw
12、ard elements （clauses， phrases， or words） from a sentence and place them separately at the beginning or end of a sentence. This technique is usually adopted when both cutting and embedding fail to work in the long and complete sentence， specifically less than three occasions： splitting a single word
13、； splitting phrases； splitting clauses （5） Recasting Recasting， also called synthesis， refers to flexibly restructuring a rendition in accordance with Chinese norms， which is founded on the accurate comprehension of the original on translators part. In other words， translators should produce a text
14、equal in meaning and effect to the source text， by presenting a complicated sentence in a digestible state and removing syntactic ambiguity. This method， the most difficult of all， is used only when all the above-mentioned techniques fail to work well due to language structure disparities 3 Conclusi
15、on As a special English serving for business contract affairs， business English contract has two major functions： informative function and communicative function. In order to grasp exactly and exercise skillfully the business English contract， it is necessary for translators to learn some relative b
16、usiness legal knowledge and to learn the features of business English contract. In practice， having some common English language knowledge is incompetent at a job. So， in order to be qualified with the task， it is worth analyzing the features of business English contract. In our daily work， it is a
17、common task for us to translate some business contracts. It is also worth exploring the translation principles of business English contract. The principles of “accuracy， clarity， brevity and standardization” fit the characteristics for business English contract. They can serve as a guide in business
18、 English contract translation and the pragmatic significance References： 1Nida，Eugene A. & Taber Charles R. （1974）.The Theory and Practice of Translation M. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 88-90 2Garner， Bryan A. （1995）.A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage Law Second Edition K.New York： Oxford University Press. 55 -58. 3Halliday， M.A.K. （2001）. An Introduction of Functional Grammar M.Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 23-27
