The pecularities of the translation of business english letters
MINISTRY FOR EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE
KYIV NATIONAL LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH
PRACTICE CHAIR
Course
Paper
THE
PECULARITIES OF THE TRANSLATION OF BUSINESS ENGLISH LETTERS
by Olesya Nagorova
406 Group
English
Language Dept.
Research supervisor
V.V.
Timofeyeva, Ph.D
Kyiv - 2008
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION…………………………………
CHAPTER I. Theoretical principles of translation of business letters.................5
1.1. The introduction to the translation of Business English letters….......5
1.2. Informative translation equivalence…………………………………..8
CHAPTER II. The features of original and translated business English
correspondence…………………………………………
2.1. Examining business English letters…………………………………………10
2.2. Samples of business English letters…………………………………..16
CONCLUSIONS……………………………………
SUMMARY………………………………………………
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………
APPENDIX……………………………………………
INTRODUCTION
In connection with the development of international relations at all levels and the Ukrainian integration policy to the European and world community the importance of translation theory and practice are continually gaining in scope.
Scientific and technical progress, covering more and more new spheres of our life, the expected explosive population growth and other no less important social phenomena lead to the unprecedented development of all sorts of relationships and between different countries as well. Under such conditions the role of the translation as a means of economical, socio-politics, scientific, and other cultural aspects of communication growths immensely.
Thus the business documentation translations namely correspondence became of greater importance. The specific texts can be characterized as informative or pragmatic and are more or less formal in syntax and linguistic means. At present the problem of informative transfer is immediate, in connection with the increasing sizes of the transfers and the difficulties appearing with the transfer, with which it is necessary to contend for technical translators, who work in different foreign companies and firms.
The article of course paper is the content and form of the business English letters and their recreation in text of translation.
The purpose of this work is the development of the special features of informative transfer. For achievement of the stated goal the following tasks were isolated:
- to determine the criteria of equivalence with the informative transfer;
- to analyze the lexical and stylistic special features of special texts;
- to determine the special features of the special texts of businesslike character.
The practical value of the gained results consists is that they can:
- be applied at making of estimation criteria of translated texts quality of this genre;
- be instrumental in a practical capture the laws of bisiness letter writing from the side of those, who studies a business language;
- be used for train and special courses in business correspondence, comparative stylistics, theories and practices of translation.
For the research material were used texts of business English letters business correspondence reference books and their official translations.
Research methods were: state-of-the-art review and analysis of scientific literature on problems and features of translation, comparative method, method of translating comment, method of aspect selection.
Work consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusions, summary, bibliography and appendix.
In the introduction is based the urgency of the theme of a study, its theoretical and practical significance, are determined object, object, purpose and tasks of a study, methods and structure of work are designated.
In the first chapter are examined theoretical questions of translation, also the concept of translation is revealed, are described the basic special features of informative translation, are determined the criteria of translation equivalence for this form of translation.
In the second chapter are investigated the lexical-grammatical and stylistic special features of informative transfer, in particular, the place of terms and their morphological structure and the basic methods of their transfer into the English; are revealed the difficulties, connected with structural differences in the languages, which participate in the process of transfer.
In
the conclusion the sums of the conducted investigation are summed up
and conclusions are formulated.
CHAPTER 1. Theoretical principles of translation of business correspondence
1.1 THE INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSLATION OF BUSINESS ENGLISH LETTRS
Translation is a very creative process. The translator has to have a specialised knowledge, foundations, for being able to approach a text. When translating non-fiction especially the translator has to be aware not only of the source and target languages but also of the subject field of the text. Then the process of tapering comes when the translator analyses the text, chooses the appropriate method and translates. The process of translating itself is like completing a mosaic, that is to say looking for meanings of terms and decoding difficult sentence structures until the final embroider.
When approaching translation of a piece of writing, the translator has to bear in mind several steps that he or she has to follow. First of all, the translator has to analyse the text-type, the basic distinction being made between literary and non-literary texts. Once the distinction is made and the translator is to deal with a non-literary text, he or she must define the subject field which the text comes from. Then it is also important to distinguish the aim of the text, whether it is a pure specialised text or a theoretical one. Only then the translator is able to choose the proper method of approach to the translation of the text having in mind the general rules of the translation process but paying attention to the peculiarities of language.
Whether a text is technical or business or literary, a translator has to make up his or her mind what it is about, what it is in aid of and what the writer's peculiar slant on it is. There are two main approaches to translation:
"(a) translating a piece of a text sentence by sentence to feel the tone of the text, reading the rest of the source text and then start translating, (b) reading the whole text several times, finding the intention, register and tone of the text and start translating." (Newmark 1988: 21)
According to Peter Newmark, there are four levels of translation that a translator has to have in mind. The first is the textual level, the basis of which is the text and includes the translation of the source language into the target language.
"You transpose the source language grammar into their 'ready' target language equivalents and you translate the lexical units into the sense that appears immediately appropriate in the context of the sentence." (Newmark 1988: 22)
The second level is the cohesive one. It follows both the structure and the moods of the text. At this level, you reconsider the lengths of paragraphs and sentences, the formulation of the title and the tone of the conclusion. The third level is that of naturalness. It is a level on which the translator has to make sure that the translation reads naturally and that it makes sense. That means that he or she used the appropriate grammar, idioms and expressions that correspond the situation. The fourth one is the referential level. It is a phase of translation process when the translator solves the translation problems, which most frequently result from the polysemy. It is based on clarification of all linguistic difficulties. The translator needs supplementary information here, for example from encyclopaedias, works of reference and textbooks. "The translator is supposed to create a referential picture in his or her mind when he or she transfers the source language into the target language." (Newmark 1988: 23) The referential level is closely connected to the importance of translator's extra knowledge from the subject field the text comes from and to the essentiality of his or her awareness of a background of the source text.
The translator has to be aware not only of the content of the source text and analyse its characteristics like language used, register, its style and intention and many other features, but he or she is also required to have some special knowledge to be able to identify particular problems occurring in the text. The translator should be acquainted with cultural or historical background of the text. Translators usually work with various sources of reference, e.g. encyclopaedias, textbooks and specialised text.
A specialised translator should not only be an expert on the source language but on the target language too and he or she should also be educated in the subject field which the source text comes from. That means that if a Ukrainian translator deals with an English business text, he or she should be acquainted with the business terms as well as with English and Ukrainian. He should also study the subject of the text in more details in both languages to be able to produce 'a quality translation'.
The specialised knowledge of the translator will enable him or her to produce such a translation which will be understandable to the readers. There is a danger that when an unspecialised translator deals with a specialised text, he tends to keep the long stylistic structures which are typical for the scientific language in the target text too, which could result in the lack of coherence of the target text. A specialised translator should consider the readership and adjust the text to it.
According to Komissarov V. N. there are three types of texts [8, 185]:
1) information texts, documentary texts (trade and business character) and scientific texts;2) political texts; 3) literary texts.
Information texts, documentary texts exclude literary language, except in quotations. Non-literary language tends to be normalised both lexically and grammatically. It is 'anonymous', it does not express any author's intentions [20, 77-99].
The
main characteristic of a specialised text is that its content can be
included in a frame according to an appropriate subject field. It concentrates
on the transmission of information which at the same time contributes
to verification of the correctness of the translation. We can distinguish
three levels within a specialised text: (a) the level of a general language,
including grammar and syntactical structures common to both fictional
and non-fictional writing, (b) the level of terminology which includes
specialised vocabulary and phrases of the branch, (c) the level of formal
or scientific language which includes syntactical structures used principally
in non-fictional writing [18,46].
- INFORMATIVE TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE
There is a definition of 'specialised texts' in Illustrated Encyclopedia Academia which claims that:
"Translation of a specialised text demands absolute loyalty and utmost exactness in terminology which subordinates its syntactical as well as lexical structure. Specialised texts contain long complicated sentences, nominal phrases and terminology excluding emotional colouring of the text."
Although this definition is true, it is not exact. Referring to what has been said, specialised texts combine in themselves three main language levels.
There must be certain shifts in translation which depend on the stylistic systems of individual languages and on the vocabulary. We can distinguish several levels where maintaining equivalence in translating could be problematical. The most significant are: the word level, the grammatical level and the textual level.
The word level refers principally to the idea that not all languages function on the same basis because the concepts of one language may differ completely from those of another language. For example, there is a range of prefixes in English which have to be translated into Ukrainian as separate word: rewrite has to be transferred into 'write again' (знову написати). This suggests that there is no "one-to-one correspondence" (Baker 1992: 11) between words and morphemes across languages.
Languages differ widely in the way they are equipped to deal with various notions and express various aspects of experience, possibly because they differ in the degree of relevance they attach to such aspects of experience.
"Differences in the grammatical structures of the source and target languages often result in some change in the information content of the message during the process of translation. This change may entail adding to the target text information not expressed in the source text or omitting information specified in the source text in the target text." (Baker 1992: 87)
Present perfect tense in English could serve us as an example when translated into Ukrainian because in Ukrainian it does not exist. Ukrainian therefore does not dispose of any linguistic features to express it and the translator has to decide whether to translate it into present or past tense.
Thus some translation rules are pointed out. In the original writing of translation text remain:
- words and sentences written another language of the original text;
- brief names of brands of wares and devices;
- names of foreign printing editions.
We translate:
- names of parts and departments of establishments and organizations;
- names of positions, ranks, graduate degrees, titles;
- proper names in accordance with the set practice.
We transliterate:
- foreign last names, proper names considering the traditional writing of the known last names;
- the articles and prepositions in the foreign last names;
- names of foreign firms, companies, joint-stock companies, corporations, business concerns, monopolies, industrial associations;
- conjunctions and prepositions in the companies names;
- proprietary names of machines, devices, chemical substances, wares, materials.
We set the Ukrainian equivalents for:
- scientific and technical terms;
-geographical names[9, с.124].
Chapter 2. The features of original and translated business English correspondence
2.1. EXAMINING ENGLISH BUSINESS LETTERS
A written official language is actualized both in diplomatic documents and in business correspondence. In many respects internal requisites of the business letter ("cliche") are archaic and make harmonous, steady enough system, so to say «діловий канцелярит», that make it relatively easy for translation [15,22-34].
In obedience to the theory of communication we distinguish the row of functional communicative blocks which are universal for both languages:
- The appeal and greeting block, where the choice of language means depends on social status of correspondence partners (5-10% of general volume).
- The reference block to the previous correspondence (10%).
- The basic report block, where the main thesis of letter is formulated: suggestion to the collaboration, report about the sale of commodity or grant of services, utterance of claims, and others (60%).
- The subsequent communication motive block (10%).
- The signature block (5-10%).
The more general and fuller structure can be presented as follows:
- Issue Field
- Address.
- Reference Line.
- Date.
- Attention Line.
- Salutation.
- Body of the letter.
- Complimentary Close.
- Postscript.
- Signature.
- Enclosure.
Certainly, some parts of the letter mentioned above could be excluded.
Address
Unlike Ukrainian in an English letter the house number is put before the name of street, and the name of city — after the name of street. Sample:
25 North Road, Apt. 5 5 Green Street, Apt. 3
London W2 4RH Ann Arbor48104
England Michigan USA
For some time past it was accepted to finish every line of address in comma, and all address by a point. Presently this practice is outdated in both languages and an address is written without commas and a point in the end.
The date of sending is in a right overhead corner, under the address of sender. There are several variants of writing a date:
September 7, 2008
September 7th, 2008
7 September, 2008
7th September, 2008
Presently the first variant is most widely-used.
Unlike Ukrainian the names of months are often written briefly:
February — Feb., June — Jun., October —Oct.,
April — Apr., August — Aug./ Ag., November — Nov.
Date can be named by numbers, however the translator should remember that in the American variant first goes a month, on the second — number and on the third — year. Например, дата 22 декабря 2008 года цифрами в американском варианте будет представлена следующим образом: 12.22.08 или 12/ 22/ 08. For example, date of December 22, 2008 in the American variant will be presented as follows: 12.22.08 or 12/ 22/ 08. In the British variant a number goes first, and then— month, as well as in Ukrainian: 22.12.08 or 22/ 12/ 08. And this should be mentioned while translation.
The name of the addressee should be written with such appeal: Mr., Mrs., Miss. Without the last name these forms are not used, and after the forms of Mr., Mrs., as a rule, a point is put unlike the Ukrainian. For example:
Mr. Richard Smith Пану Річарду Сміту
Mrs. Lucy Long Пані Лусі Лонг
Miss Agatha Brown Пані Агаті Браун
Misses Helen and Agnes Пані Хелен та Агнес
Bosworth Бозуорт
Form of Mr. refers to a man, Mrs. — to the married woman, Miss — to a single one.
If you send a letter in a firm or organization, proprietors or leaders of which can be a few, you write:
Messrs.* Bullman, Carey, and Панам Булману, Кері та
Benson Бенсону
Mesdames** Brooks and Coleman Пані Брукс та Коул-
Mmes. Brooks and Coleman манн
It is essential to know that in Ukrainian the singular and plural forms of ‘пані’are the same.
When the sender of the letter, addressed to any organization desires so that the letter would be read by specific face oа this organization, then before the entrance rotation (or under it) the following inscription is placed:
For the attention of Mr. D. Robinson – Увазі пана Д. Робінсона
Attention of Mr. D. Robinson
Appeal.
The form of appeal depends on the degree of acquaintance or family relations with the addressee. So, to the unfamiliar or unknown people:
Dear
Mr. Smith, Шановний пане Сміт!
Dear Miss Smith, Шановна пані Сміт!
Dear Mrs. Wilson, Шановна пані Уілсон!
Dear Ms. Green, Шановна пані Грін!
Dear Messrs. Smith Шановні панове Сміт та Джоунз!
and Jones,
In strictly official letters you write:
My dear Sir: Високопоставлений пане!
My dear Madam: Вельмишановна пані!
In official letters to the unknown people, the last names you do not know the followings forms are used::
Sir: Пане!
Dear Sir, Шановний пане!
Dear Sirs, Шановні панове!
Gentlemen: Панове!
Dear
Sir or Madam: Шановний/а пане (пані)!
Madam: Пані!
Dear Madam, Шановна пані!
Appeals of My dear Sir, My dear Madam, Sir, Madam are strictly official. Dear Sir, Dear Madam a few less official and that can also be viewed in Ukrainian as well.
In addition, in less official and semi-official correspondence it is possible to meet such forms;
Dear Colleague, Шановний колего!
Dear Reader, Шановний читачу!
Dear Editor, Шановний редакторе!
Dear Publisher, Шановний видавцю!
Unlike the Ukrainian language in English-speaking letters after the reference the exclamation mark but a comma or a colon is put not.
Reference Line.
The block of reference line in Business correspondence is optional for both languages and it is determined by the situation of intercourse, which is a stimulus to drafting of letter. This can be presented: 1) by independent suggestion and selected in a separate indention; 2) by the main part of complex sentence; 3) by second-rate part of sentence. Equivalent translation is provided by the use of permanent or occasional variants: Ми отримали сьогодні… ; У відповідь на Ваше замовлення.
Beginning.
The beginning of the letter usually consists of words of gratitude for the letter received earlier or any other phrases depending on a situation. The list of most often used phrases is given in the Appendix.
Body of the letter. (Samples of letters are given thereunder.)
Final phrase. (Final phrases of letters are given in the Appendix.)
Complimentary Close.
As well as the appeal, the complementary close depends on addressee. However in English written etiquette more or less the general form ‘Sincerely yours’ which depends on tone of all letter can be perceived both as strictly official, and as less official, and as absolutely informal. In Ukrainian this form is translated depending on a situation as ‘З повагою’, ‘Щиро ваш’. This form has some variants:
Sincerely,
Sincerely yours,
Very sincerely yours,
Yours sincerely,
Yours very sincerely,
Along with the given above forms in official and business correspondence are used:
Yours truly/ Yours very truly, З повагою і найкращими побажаннями!
(формально та офіційно)
Truly yours/ Very truly yours, З повагою і найкращими
(дещо менш формально, але також офіційно) побажаннями!
Less official are:
Faithfully yours, З повагою
Cordially yours, Щиро Ваш
Subordinates usually address to the heads:
Respectfully yours, З повагою
If it is the invitation letter there is R. S V. R., which means:" надішліть відповідь будь ласка ".
Enclosure
Here
you may see the main differences of enclosure in English vs English
Encl: Cheque
Enclosures:
Insurance
Policy
Invoice
Postscript
In
English business letters addition begins from the reduction P.S., in
the end of the addition the signature again is placed unlike the Ukrainian.
2.2.
SAMPLES OF BUSINESS ENGLISH LETTRS
The following types of official English letters are distinguished:
- Letter of Inquiry
- Letter of Order
- Letter of Demand
-
Letter of Claim
- Letter of Adjustment
Of course it is not the full list of them, but actually the samples
of which are given and translated in my course paper [14,
44-48].
Letter
of Inquiry
The subject of inquiries is the information of any sort and its any kind – the list of the prices, conditions of delivery, terms of performance of orders, inquiries, guarantees, catalogues etc. The language of inquiries is simple, and the content is reduced to «we ask such information». In inquiries the following cliches are usually used:
Please inform us – Просимо повідомити
Please send us – просимо надіслати
Please rush us – просимо вислати
We should be obliged to receive your (price-list) – ми були б вдячні, отримавши ваш (прейскурант)
We are interested in – Ми цікавимося
We are in the market for – Ми маємо намір купити
Quote prices – вкажіть ціну
We
have an inquiry for – Ми хотіли б отримати інформацію
про…
15 May 2002
Damark International, Inc.
6707 Shingle Greek parkway
Minnepolis, MN 55430
USA
Gentlemen:
Please send us your new catalogue of Computers and Microprocessors. We also should be grateful if you would enclose free descriptive leaflets with your reply and quote your terms f.o.b. London
M. Davis
Панове!
Просимо
Вас надіслати новий
каталог комп'ютерів
і мікропроцесорів.
Також будемо вдячні,
якщо Ви додасте каталог
безкоштовних проспектами
і вкажете умови доставки
Ф.О.Б. Лондон.
М.
Дейвіс.
Letter of Order.
In orders and covering letters such words and expressions are often used:
To be quoted on all documents – посилатися на замовлення у всіх документах
Your terms (quotations, prices) are accepted – ваші умови, ціни приймаються
We accept your terms – ми приймаємо ваші ціни, умови
Free repair – безкоштовний ремонт, заміна
Invoice – рахунок
To place an order for – розмістити замовлення
Reduce quotations by 10 per cent – зменшити ціни на 10 %
trial order – перевірочне замовлення
Regular order – регулярні замовлення
To ship\to deliver – доставляти
To take delivery – прийняти доставку
Payment in check – оплата чеком
Postage – оплата за доставку
Prompt delivery – швидка доставка
Discount
– знижка
Dear
Sirs,
Please
supply me 20 ‘Accursed Skeleton’ at $70 each and 70 Swatch
“Wall Street” watches at $25 each plus $5 postage and handling for
each watch ordered.
I enclose full payment in check.
Панове:
Прошу вислати мені 20 годинників по 70 ам. доларів за штуку і 70 годинників по 25 фунтів за штуку плюс по 5 ам. доларів за кожен годинник на пересилку і доставку.
Додаю повну оплату чеком.
Confirmation
of orders.
Such
orders, as a rule do not demand to be translated, they are registered
and filed:
Dear Sirs,
This
is to confirm your order №210 of 10 May.
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