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: __指导教师：学号：姓名：外国语学院（部）英语专业2012 届2012年4月16日Translation Characteristics and Strategies of Letters of Credit in internationalBusinessBySubmitted to School of Foreign Languagesin Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for theTerm PaperFor English-Chinese TranslationatUnder the Supervision ofTranslation Characteristics and Strategies of Letters of Credit in internationalBusinessABSTRACTPayment 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。

随着国际贸易的发展，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. IntroductionInternational 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. (J.Chilver, 1997:141) Therefore, how to avoid risks is of much importance.Letters 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.1Chapter One Definition ,Classification & Use Process of L/C Ⅰ. Definition of Letters of CreditLetters 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 Creditⅰ.According to the Attaching of Documents1. 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 Credit1. 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 Confirmation1. 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 payment2credit, 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 CreditTo 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.3Chapter Two Characteristics & Common Errors of Letters ofCredit TranslationThe 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 Normalizationⅰ. Word Choices Are Quite Precise and FormattedChoosing 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: 本公司很高兴通知贵方，本公司已开立了一张不可撤销保兑信用证。