英汉翻译学期论文

英汉翻译学期论文

国际商务中信用证翻译特点及策略

学期论文题目

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指导教师：

学

号：

姓

名：

外国语 学

院

（

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英

语

专

业

2012

届

201 2

年

4

月

16

日

Translation Characteristics and Strategies of Letters of Credit in international

Business

By

Submitted to School of Foreign Languages

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Term Paper

For English-Chinese Translation

at

Under the Supervision of

山东经济学院外国语学院英汉翻译学期论文

Translation Characteristics and Strategies of Letters of Credit in international

Business

ABSTRACT

Payment in international trade is crucial for both the seller and the buyer. With the

development of international trade, Letters of Credit payment gradually came into being

as banks and financial institutions were involved in international trade settlement. With

the

help

of

this

method

of

payment,

the

payment

responsibility

of

the

importer

is

transferred to bank to ensure the safety, as a result, the rapid payment is received by the

seller,

and

meanwhile,

the

regular

shipping

documents

are

given

to

the

buyer

conveniently.

Therefore,

with

the

benefit

of

Letters

of

Credit,

the

distrust

contradiction

between the seller and the buyer is solved to a certain extent. Nowadays, payment by

Letters of Credit has become the widely adopted method.

Letters

of

Credit

English

for

specific

purposes

has

its

own

unique

vocabulary

features.

This

paper

summarizes

characteristics

of

its

translation

from

the

credit

classification, use of the process, and starting letter words in English, and explores the

English translation strategy. It is divided into three chapters: The first chapter probes into

the definition of the Letter of Credit, its classification and its use process in international

trade;

the

second

describes

the

characteristics

and

common

errors

of

the

credit

translation;

The

last

one

is

the

focus

of

this

article,

discussing

Letters

of

Credit

translation strategy based on these two chapters, from the perspective of the translation

Communicative Theory, Skopos Theory, Functional Equivalence etc.

Keywords

:

Letters

of

Credit

Translation;

characteristics;

strategies;

Functional

Theory

山东经济学院外国语学院英汉翻译学期论文

国际商务中信用证翻译特点及策略

摘要

国际货物买卖合同中，

货物的对付对买卖双方都是十分重要的问题。

随着国际贸易的

信用证支付方式是在银行与金融机构参与国际贸易结算的过程中逐步 形成的。

信用

证支付方式把由进口人履行付款责任转为由银行来 付款，保证出口人安全迅速收到货款，

买方按时收到货运单据。

因此，

在一定程度上解决了进出口商之间互不信任的矛盾；

同时 ，

也为进出口双方提供了资金融通的便利。

当今，

信用证付款已成为国际贸易中普遍采用的

一种主要支付方式。

信用证英语作为一门专门用途英语，有其独特的词汇特征。本文拟从信用证的 分类，

使用过程，以及信用证英语的词汇出发，归纳其翻译特点，并探讨其英译策略。全 文分为

三章：

第一章讨论了信用证的定义、

分类及其在国际贸易中的作用；

第二章介绍了信用证

翻译特 点以及信用证翻译中出现的常见错误；第三章是本文的重点，依据上述两章内容，

从翻译 的功能理论，目的论，交际理论，功能对等等方面讨论信用证翻译策略。

关键词

：信用证翻译；特点；策略；功能翻译理论

山东经济学院外国语学院英汉翻译学期论文

.

Introduction

International business translation is becoming more and more significant, as China furthers

its

reform

and

opening-up

after

having

joined

the

WTO,

which

contributes

to

constant

development

of

economic

globalization.

Among

the

international

trade

activities

business

English translation plays an ever increasing role in many fields such as technology introduction,

overseas investment etc.

In international trade, both sellers and buyers are not willing to give

the other party money or goods first, in order to solve this problem, avoiding risk, there's the

payment by Letters of Credit, namely the L/C. The purpose of any business is to make profit.

(r,

1997:141)

Therefore,

how

to

avoid

risks

is

of

much

s

of

Credit

translation, covering many fields,

as a branch of business

English translation, is important

to

payment

in

international trade

for both

the sellers

and the buyers.

For Chinese business

man

whose native language is not English, Letters of Credit translation is a necessary process when

they

do

International

business

with

their

counterparts

from

different

parts

of

the

world.

Therefore, it is imperative that the translators understand the characteristics of Letters of Credit

translation and promote their translating abilities, strategies of it.

Business English translation should abide by the

“loyal, accurate, unified”

principle.

The

translation standard basically can reflect the L/C language translation standard.

“Accurate”

is

reflected in two aspects, that is, the precise use of words and the strict syntax structure. When

anyone

needs

to

write

a

business

letter

he

should

always

remember

the

importance

of

?

The

Three C

?

s:

Clarity, Courtesy and Conciseness

’

.

(Duncan Macintosh, 1997:1-1) The L/C is also

a

kind

of

business

letters.

However,

there

are

many

other

aspects

which

need

our

careful

attention.

1

山东经济学院外国语学院英汉翻译学期论文

Chapter One

Definition ,Classification & Use Process of L/C

Ⅰ

. Definition of Letters of Credit

Letters of Credit is a written undertaking issued by a bank (the issuing bank) to the seller

(the

beneficiary)

at

the

request

and

in

accordance

with

the

instruction

of

the

buyer

(the

applicant) to effective payment (that is, by making a payment, or by accepting or negotiating

bills

of

exchange)

up

to

a

stead

sum

of

money,

within

a

prescribed

time

limit

and

against

stipulated documents. (Liao Ying, 2008

：

124)

Ⅱ

. Classification of Letters of Credit

ⅰ

.

According to the Attaching of Documents

1.

Clean

Credit:

A

clean

credit

is

a

credit

under

which

payment

will

be

effected

only

against a draft without any shipping documents attached thereto or sometimes, against a draft

with an invoice alone attached thereto.

2. Documentary Credit: It is a credit under which payment will be made against documents

representing title to the goods and thus making the transfer of title possible.

ⅱ

.According to the Revocability of Credit

1. Revocable Credit: A revocable credit is a credit that can be amended or cancelled at any

moment by the issuing bank without previous notice to the beneficiary.

2.

Irrevocable

Credit:

An

irrevocable

credit

is

a

credit

that

constitutes

a

definite

undertaking of the issuing bank and can be amended or cancelled by the issuing bank only if all

parties contented.

ⅲ

. According to the Adding of Confirmation

1. Confirmed

Credit:

It

is

a credit that is

advised to

the benef

iciary with

another bank?s

confirmation added thereto.

2.

Unconfirmed

Credit:

It

is

a

credit

added

to

the

beneficiary

without

adding

any

other

bank?s conformation.

There are many other ways to classify Letters of Credit, such as: According to the time of

payment

they

can

be

classified

into

sight

credit

and

time

credit;

they

can

be

called

payment

2

山东经济学院外国语学院英汉翻译学期论文

credit,

deferred

payment

letter

of

credit,

acceptance

letter

of

credit

and

negotiation

credit

according

to

the

method

of

payment;

according

to

the

credit

amount

to

be

used

revoltingly,

automatic credit, semi-automatic and non-automatic credit are produced.

The classification of Letters of Credit is quite useful for its translation in that if one get a

good

commend

of

their

classification,

one

can

translate

them

proficiently

according

to

their

different classifications.

III. Use Process of Letters of Credit

To understand intercultural business communication event, we must first study the general

process involved in all human communication transactions.(Zhou Shibao,2011:22) The same is

true for the Letters of Credit translation.

As a beneficiary: Firstly, you inform

your client of details such as your company name,

address, opening bank and swift code so that they can open a Letter of Credit. Secondly, after

you get the original L/C from advising bank, you should arrange shipment. After shipment, you

get

original

Bill

of

Lading,

then

you

shall

make

shipping

documents

as

stipulated

on

l/c

,

generally

including:

invoice,

packing

list,

shipping

advice,

certificate

of

origin,

insurance ,certificate or analysis (medicine or drugs), or other documents. Thirdly, you shall go

to

the

negotiation

bank

for

presentation

of

documents.

The

bank

will

send

documents

to

the

paying

bank,

while

you

will

get

the

payment

after

presentation

of

documents.

(Yang

Ailan,

2009:291)

As

a

translator,

only

if

the

significance

of

the

use

process

is

understood

well,

can

the

translation be appropriate for the Letters of Credit.

3

山东经济学院外国语学院英汉翻译学期论文

Chapter Two Characteristics & Common Errors of Letters of

Credit Translation

The definition & classification of Letters of Credit and its use process have been discussed;

then, its translation characteristics can be analyzed one after another. Letters of Credit possess

unique language characteristics. From this angle, a letter of credit is an agreement, binding on

both

sides

with

legal

instrument

language

features

that

word

choices

are

of

preciseness,

formality, professionalism and concrete embodiment, which can be introduced in the following

aspects

requiring

translator

to

pay

attention

to.

What

?

s

more,

there

are

many

common

errors

appearing in the usual Letters of Credit translation for many reasons. The common errors can be

analyzed as below.

Ⅰ

. The Format and Normalization

ⅰ

. Word Choices Are Quite Precise and Formatted

Choosing the right words and presenting them properly is clearly one of the requirements

for

effective

communication.

(Price

R.V

oiles,1998:182)

As

a

formal

business

communication

document,

many

formatted

words

and

expressions

are

used

in

Letters

of

Credit

to

show

the

professionalism

, the Chinese words “

贵方，本公司，兹

······” used for expressing respites and

formalities are often used in the translation. For example:

1. We are pleased to inform you that we have opened an irrevocable and confirmed L/C.

(Feng Qinghua, 2008

：

224)

T: