Company profile translation related papers 1
On the Equivalent Translation of Company Profile
As a rapidly developing discipline, pragmatics pays attention to the realistic environment of language use and reflects the communicative intention of language users. As a propaganda material, company profile has its specific content and function. Texts with different stylistic features have different requirements for their translation language and pragmatic functions. Therefore, understanding the linguistic features and pragmatic functions of this style can better translate and achieve effective publicity purposes.
First, the company profile of the pragmatic functions and language features
Pete. Newmart (1982) once divided text types into expressions, information, calls and encouragement according to their different functions. In fact, in real life, the functions of texts with different themes are often mixed according to different purposes or contexts. Company profile is a kind of selective guidance and practical writing. In the increasingly fierce competition, the main function of company profile is to provide relevant information to the public, so as to achieve publicity effect and promote cooperation. Language has symbolic meaning and communicative meaning, and different language symbols can express different communicative intentions in different language forms in different contexts. Due to different cultural concepts and ideologies, texts with the same pragmatic function and the same theme will adopt different language forms.
Let's compare the similarities and differences of language features in different cultural backgrounds from the profile of a Belgian company and the profile of a domestic small and medium-sized enterprise translated by myself.
Example1vigan engineering s.a. is a Belgian company headquartered near Brussels, producing a full range? Looking for processing capacity of 50 to 1 000 metric tons per hour and any free-flowing materials, such as?
? VIGAN excellence is recognized by hundreds of international reference institutions?
Hubei Hongfa Rice Industry Co., Ltd. is a grain industrialization enterprise integrating grain purchase, processing, storage and sales, which was reorganized by Zhongxiang Yangzi Grain Storage Company and Zhongxiang Hongfa Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. in July 2006. The company is located in Zhongxiang, a national historical and cultural city, an excellent tourist city and a hometown of longevity. Zhongxiang City is located in the north of Jianghan Plain, with four distinct seasons, fertile soil and rich elements such as calcium, phosphorus and iron. The rice produced by the company is selected from pure natural high-quality rice watered by pure natural mountain springs in the depths of Dahongshan District, which is rich in nutrition, green, safe and pollution-free, pure in quality and good in taste. The company covers an area of 33,000 square meters, with 165 employees, registered capital of104.95 million yuan after reorganization and total assets of 668 10000 yuan. It has 6 rice mills, 7 production lines, 80,000 tons storage capacity and 450 tons daily processing capacity. It is a key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization in Hubei Province and a top 20 enterprise in grain and oil industry in Hubei Province. The company has been rated as an advanced unit of grain work in Hubei Province and a consumer satisfaction unit in Hubei Province for many times.
From the essence of real estate in the hometown of longevity, create a high-quality life!
(1) Choosing words
From the above two cases, it is not difficult to see that both Chinese and English company profiles use short and easy-to-understand common words to describe the company, and there are almost no very uncommon phrases or idioms. And try to make the article easy to read in speech, and pay attention to the use of syllable repetition or rhyme to enhance the language effect. For example 1? Outstanding performance? , in example 2? Essence life? , make plain and introductory words appear more lively and rhythmic beauty.
(2) Syntactic form
As an open publicity material, the company profile must use appropriate sentence patterns to express the author's potential intention from the reader's point of view. In order to make the text more approachable and close the distance between readers and potential customers, most of them use? Are you (us)? , ? Your (your)? To refer to the public. On the other hand, in order to reflect the strength of the company and the sincerity of cooperation, the tone should be more objective to be more convincing. Therefore, the passive sentence pattern of this style is mostly the present tense, giving the impression that it is crisp and ambitious, and rarely appears like? we? Such words, avoid empty promises, determination and suspicion of flattering people in the past. The difference is that the sentence of example 1 uses participles, independent structures and sentence phrases, which makes the sentence more concise and compact, while example 2 is slightly lengthy, giving people a sense of redundancy.
(3) Text structure
Any text has its own format, which tells readers some information and expresses a communicative intention in some way, and the company profile is no exception. The difference is that China's introduction emphasizes geographical location more, while English introduction is just a cursory tour. Maybe this has something to do with China people? If you want to be rich, build roads first? With a good environment and convenient transportation, it is naturally much easier to develop. This is the embodiment of the intention of China enterprises to promote themselves and develop outward in the introduction; Second, China's corporate image seems to be too focused on the honors and titles won, showing a lack of self-confidence. It seems that only by listing a bunch of honors instead of the products themselves can we convince the public more effectively, which is related to the fact that China products have not yet gained a firm foothold in the international market. However, what happened recently? Sanlu? Did the milk powder incident make the public right? National inspection exemption? In this case, the authority has also been shaken, and the historical position of authority in the hearts of consumers has also been reduced to a certain extent.
Second, translation strategies.
The essence of translation is that the translator transforms the cultural information of the original text into the cultural information of the translated text and obtains similar thinking activities and language activities. In many company profiles of China, there are often gorgeous words to show the profoundness of China language and the proud style of the company. However, as an English reader, you may not have the ability and time to come? Appreciate? . As the translation of company profile, we should not only consider the reproduction of language meaning, but also pay attention to the potential influence of the translation on readers, that is, strive for equivalence. Hickey(200 1) holds that any translation must be able to potentially influence the target readers, just as the original text can influence the readers. And it is equivalent, analogous, not similar. According to him, the essence of pragmatic equivalence is pragmatic equivalence. Therefore, the company profile should fully consider the target audience, take them as the center, not only inform the readers, but also produce the same potential effect as Chinese.
Form transformation
Due to the differences in values and thinking habits between China and the West, the styles of company profiles are also different. Appropriate flexible translation strategies can reduce the resistance in the translation process and benefit English readers. A company profile is a business card, and this first impression is very important. Modern people pay more attention to fast pace and freshness, and have a stronger sense of time. Therefore, conciseness should be the first element of translation, and appropriate adaptation is also necessary. In example 2, when referring to the fact of the company's production capacity and scale, we might as well write numbers in Arabic instead of words? Millions (millions)? By analogy, the continuous appearance of multiple zeros will be more powerful, which will leave a deep impression on readers in a short time and lay the foundation for further understanding. Example: 1 It is much better to convince readers in the form of capacity ranging from 50 to 10000 metric tons.
(2) generalization.
As mentioned above, China people pay more attention to the accumulation of honors or titles for various reasons, such as Example 2? It is a key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization in Hubei Province and a top 20 enterprise in grain and oil industry in Hubei Province. The company has been rated as an advanced unit of grain work in the whole province and a consumer satisfaction unit in Hubei province for many times? If we look at it the other way around, it will definitely give English readers a sense of procrastination, and their interest in reading will definitely be affected. Moreover, if many honorary titles of China are directly translated into the past, English readers may not understand the meaning and status of honor at all. In this case, it should be summarized selectively. For example 1? VIGAN excellence is recognized by hundreds of international reference institutions? (This sentence only illustrates that Wigan's perfect quality has been recognized by many international companies, rather than detailing what honor it has won, taking care of the cultural customs of western readers, and it is also simple and simple. )
(C) the concept of change
Variation is a translation activity in which the translator adopts flexible means such as addition, reduction, editing, narration, contraction, merger and modification under specific conditions and according to the special needs of specific readers. The translation of company profile is an interdisciplinary communication activity with a specific purpose. For the convenience of visiting or other purposes, the company address is often written on the publicity materials or web pages of many companies. But for English readers, China's administrative divisions seem too complicated. Although there are corresponding countries, towns, villages and even teams in English, English readers may not have as complicated concepts as China people. The author used to? Yangqiao Village, Jiuli Hui Township, Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province? Translation? Yangqiao Village, Jiulihui Township, Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province? But a foreigner who is proficient in China culture suggested changing it to? Yangqiao, Jiulihui District, Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province? , will it? Yangzi town? Direct translation? Yang Zizhen? . It may be difficult to draw a conclusion whether this kind of translation is more acceptable to English readers, but one thing is certain, that is, people with different cultural backgrounds have different attitudes and views on the same thing, and it is very important to change their ideas in cross-cultural communication.
Third, the conclusion
The standard of translation equivalence has always been controversial, especially formal equivalence and functional equivalence. However, we must face the fact that complete equivalence in translation can be said to be an illusion. Because whether a translation can convince readers depends on what kind of situation it is in, what kind of audience it faces and what kind of purpose it wants to achieve. Language conveys the speaker's attitude, motivation and other information to others through various forms, and forms the relationship between people. Therefore, in the process of pragmatic translation, the translator should realize the conversion between the author's intention and the work's intention from different angles and forms, and realize the equivalence of the translation. This paper hopes to contribute to the construction of practical translation in China by expounding some characteristics of company profile translation.
References:
[1] Huang Zhonglian. Variation translation theory [M]. Beijing: China Foreign Translation Publishing Company, 2002.
[2] Ran Yongping, Zhang,. Pragmatics [M]. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2007.
[3] Wang Wenbin. Discourse and the translator [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2005.
Company profile translation related papers II
Translation principles of Chinese-English introduction of self-operated import and export enterprises
This paper analyzes the linguistic features of company profiles, puts forward the principles that should be followed in the translation of company profiles according to Peter Newmark's viewpoint, and probes into the effective application of these principles by taking the translation of company profiles of self-operated import and export enterprises as an example.
[Keywords:] Company Profile Peter Newmark
For enterprises with import and export rights, the quality of English translation of company profiles may determine whether the company can get orders and retain customers. However, due to the translator's level, mistranslation and improper translation caused by not following some translation principles can be seen everywhere, which seriously affects the effect of the translation. There is little research on English translation of company profiles. Xu Fangfang et al. (2005) briefly analyzed some common problems in English translation of company profiles, such as mistranslation, insufficient translation, cultural errors, grammatical errors and logical problems. Based on Peter Newmark's translation theory of different functional languages, this study analyzes the linguistic features and translation principles of company profiles, and discusses the effective application of these principles by taking the translation of company profiles of self-operated import and export companies as an example.
I. Functions and contents of the company profile
According to Peter Newmark's analysis of language function, company profile has two main functions: one is to provide company information, the other is to publicize the company, attract attention and call for cooperation. From the first function, the company profile should use the language with information function, and there will be technical English and professional vocabulary with the characteristics of conciseness, logic, compactness and objectivity, while the general present tense and passive voice are mostly used in grammar (Zhang Hu, 2002); On the second level, the company profile will also use some appellations, such as? We will continue to lead the trend of surgical instruments and challenge the future! ? Wait a minute.
From the content, the company profile includes 1) company background; 2) service or product; 3) Company structure; 4) Business scope; 5) Recent major developments; 6) Cooperation invitation. The first five items mostly use information function language, but there is no lack of self-promotion, and the sixth item all uses call function language. In the sense of marketing communication, company profile is a means of public relations propaganda. The core of modern marketing is customer-centered (Kotler, 2004), and the readers of company profile are the target audience. Therefore, its language should fully consider the characteristics of the audience and organize the language according to the customer-centered concept.
Second, Peter Newmark's translation theory of different functional languages
Peter Newmark (1982) analyzed the translation of different functional languages (expressive, informative and vocal), listed typical examples of these three functional languages, and discussed the ideal translation style. Ideal? Style), text emphasis, focus, method, translation unit, language type, loss of meaning in translation, use of new words and meanings, key words (reservation), treatment of uncommon metaphors and length of translation relative to the original text.
Three. Translation principles and case analysis of company profiles of self-operated import and export enterprises
The profile of a self-operated import and export enterprise is as follows: Company A was formally established on June 20th, 1995, and listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange on April 27th, 1997. Based on the information, energy and environmental industries, the company is a leading enterprise in the industry, with first-class product quality and best-selling at home and abroad. Who is from Company A? Rejuvenate the country through science and education? Take responsibility for yourself and promote it vigorously? Commitment, exploration, transcendence, responsibility, value equivalence? Corporate culture concept, the company was selected? China science and technology 100? , and was rated as? A trustworthy enterprise? 、? China Top 100 Electronic Information? . Enterprises sincerely welcome new and old customers at home and abroad to consult and contact.
Combined with Peter Newmark's analysis, the principles that should be followed in the translation of company profiles and their application in this case are as follows:
1. Ideal style.
When introducing the basic situation of the company, it should be objective and concise, and the invitation for cooperation should be convincing, but the overall language should be plain and concrete and fact-oriented. The gorgeous Chinese words in the article should be translated into plain language, such as? Gong Ming is listed? It can be simply regarded as. Go to IPO? ; ? Four headquarters? : four divisions; ? Vigorously promote ... culture? It has developed its own corporate culture.
2. Translation focus and translation focus.
Translation should focus on the target language and organize translation for the target audience; Is it feasible that translation should focus on readers and take customers as the center? What about you? Refers to the potential audience. The target audience of company profiles of self-operated import and export enterprises is international customers, and their characteristics should be fully considered in language organization. For some words that reflect cultural differences, domestication strategies should be adopted to avoid semantic ambiguity and misunderstanding caused by cultural deficiency. Most China enterprises like to use slogan nouns in their profiles. Here? All these years, a has been? Rejuvenate the country through science and education? Take responsibility for yourself and promote it vigorously? Commitment, exploration, transcendence, loyalty and responsibility equal value? Corporate culture concept? When we treat it, we should reflect its significance: A has been taking the development of rejuvenating the country through science and education as its own responsibility for many years and cultivated its own corporate culture. Correct: Take responsibility, explore possibilities, pursue Excellence, and create value by building loyalty and responsibility. About what? China science and technology 100? 、? A trustworthy enterprise? 、? China Top 100 Electronic Information? China 100 Top Technology Enterprises, Integrity Corporation, China 100 Top Electronic Information Enterprises.
3. Translation methods and language forms.
Translation methods should be functionally equivalent, mainly stating facts and providing information; The language form should be realistic and cater to the characteristics of foreign customers who like plain language, objective introduction and information orientation; At the same time, because the reading object of company profiles is not limited to professionals, as a public relations propaganda medium, the audience is the public, so the language should be as concise, friendly and close to spoken English as possible, and most company profiles in English-speaking countries have this feature; However, in China, there are many slogans in the English translation of company profiles, such as? The products are of first-class quality and are very popular in domestic and foreign markets? , if translated into? Our products are first-class and very popular at home and abroad? It often makes foreign readers feel disgusted. They don't quite accept the exaggerated, general and abstract rhetoric in some domestic propaganda materials. As above? First-class quality? If you use the certificate certified by the authoritative organization of similar products in China, you can achieve the ideal publicity effect. Besides, the so-called? Very popular at home and abroad? It is best to use some specific countries and place names to describe the sales scope of your products.
4. Loss of meaning or choice.
At this time, we should consider the problem of cultural differences and make choices according to cultural differences. Like what? Leading enterprises? In the eyes of westerners? Dragon? It is a formidable monster with a fierce image, which conflicts with the dragon image in China culture. In addition, foreigners don't know how to play the dragon lantern, and of course it is impossible to know the function of the dragon tap (Ding Hengqi, 2002). Domestication translation methods of Locomotive and Flagship, which are familiar to English readers, are adopted in translation. Motorcycle? Or? Flagship? , or translated? Market leader? This translation is easy to understand.
References:
[1] Xu Fangfang Xu Xin:? Company profile? Analysis and Exploration of English Translation [J]. Journal of Zhejiang Education College, 2005, (1)
[2] Peter Newmark. Translation method [M]. Pegamon Publishing Co., Ltd., 1982
[3] philip kotler, Gary Armstrong. marketing principles [M]. Tsinghua University Publishing House, 2004, 9th edition.
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