商务英语信函中的连接词及翻译

本科生毕业论文（设计）

题目On the Text Conjunction and Its

Translation in English Business Letters

商务英语信函中的连接词及翻译

专业英语(商务英语)

院部外国语学院

学号0804420612

姓名林琪琪

指导教师舒兰讲师

答辩时间二○一一年十二月

论文工作时间：2011年09月—2011年12月

商务英语信函中的连接词及翻译

学生姓名：林琪琪

指导老师：舒兰

摘要: 商务英语信函是国际贸易的一种重要交流手段。在写作中，连接词的使用事关话语连贯，有利于提高文章的质量。在目前的研究中，对商务信函的文体特点、用词策略等研究较多。基于此，本文讨论了连接词的定义、位置和分类、以及连接词的翻译。根据功能对等翻译理论，翻译商务信函应该把读者的反应放在首位，在接受语中用最贴切的对等语再现源语信息。

关键词：商务英语信函；连接词；功能对等；连接词翻译

On the Text Conjunction and Its Translation in English

Business Letters

Undergraduate: Lin qiqi

Supervisor: Shu Lan

Abstract: English business letter is a kind of important means of communication in international trade. In writing, the use of the conjunction is related with the discourse coherence and can improve the quality of the writing. In the present study, the stylistic features and term strategy of business letter are studied more than other aspects. This paper studies on the definition, position and classification of conjunction. According to the functional equivalence principle, readers’ reaction should be put in the first place and the source language should be expressed in appropriate receptors’ language.

Key words: English business letter; conjunction; functional equivalence; conjunction translation

Contents

1. Introduction (1)

2. Introduction to text conjunction (1)

2.1 Definition of text conjunction (2)

2.2 Position of text conjunction (2)

2.3 Categories of text conjunctions (2)

3. Function of conjunctions in English business letter (3)

4. Translation of text conjunctions (5)

4.1 Theoretical foundation—functional equivalence theory (5)

4.2 Translation of text conjunctions under parataxis and hypotaxis (6)

4.2.1 The definition of hypotaxis and parataxis (6)

4.2.2 Strategies of translation (6)

5. Conclusion (9)

Bibliography (11)

Acknowledgements (12)

1. Introduction

The main purpose of business letters is to send massages, do business and communicate in business exchanges. With the development of the international trade, it is more and more important in writing and translating business letter. Generally speaking, business letters are concise and easy to understand, and they tend to be less personal because they strictly deal with business affairs, or matters closely connected with business or with people the writer may not know by name or in person.

The component parts of language are, of course, words, and the basis of language is the grouping together of the component parts, i.e. words, into what is called a sentence. The secret of all good writing is the very careful choice of words, so that they convey with force and conviction the exact idea the writer has in mind. Since English and Chinese are two different languages, it is no easy job to obtain as much correspondence as possible between the source and target texts. Halliday holds that within the primary word class of adverbs, there is another class, namely conjunctions. Conjunctions also form word groups by modifications, such as even if, not until, if only. Many conjunctive expressions have evolved from more complex structures, e.g.as soon as, in case, nevertheless. Halliday and Hasan(1976:57) classify the discourse links as four types：1）Addictive conjunctions；2）Adversative conjunctions ；3）Causal conjunctions；4）Temporal conjunctions .

As is known to all, effective communication requires coherence and clarity, and conjunctions play a very important role in making communication coherent and clear. A lot of studies have shown that the use of conjunctions is problematic for language learners. The use of conjunctions contributes to cohesion and teachers often focus on these devices in writing lessons, but students may misuse or overuse these cohesive devices. All these performances are likely to make the text less comprehensible. Therefore focusing on the study of conjunctions will also benefit business letter writing.

Hypotaxis refers to the connection of words or sentences by linguistic ways including both lexical and morphological ones and parataxis the connection of words or sentences by inner logic and semantic relations between linguistic units. Westerners have a developed rational thought and attach a great importance on logic, while Chinese believe intuition, with a strong emotion. In business letter translation, special attention must be paid to parataxis and hypotaxis. In this paper, conjunctions’ translation is discussed connected with Eugene Nida’ functional equivalent theory. 2. Introduction to text conjunction

Conjunction can be considered as a term used to refer to surface signals of relations among events or situations in a text. Conjunctions, which are given different