Ellipsis in translation means some word or components in source language do not need to be translated in target language. That is because the meaning of these omitted words or components is obvious, or because it will cause burdensome or lacking in fluency in translation.

Many kinds of word class and components in English can be omitted in Chinese. In addition to the ellipsis of pronouns, some other words or phrases can be omitted due to grammatical or rhetoric point of view.

Examples:

Consultant will deliver to Client all Confidential Information and all copies thereof when Client requests the same or immediately upon termination of this Agreement, which ever occurs earlier, except for one copy thereof that Consultant may retain for its records.

客户要求时，或本协议终止时（以两种情况中先发生的为准），顾问将向客户提交所有机密信息及所有副本，但顾问可以存档的一份副本除外。

In legal English, thereof and hereof are quite often to see, to make the expression more exactly. But in the certain context of Chinese language, many of them can be omitted. The two “thereof” in the above sentence is a good example.

The Purchaser further undertakes and agrees to procure and ensure that the independent auditors of the Purchaser and any agent, employee or independent contractor of the Purchaser abide by this Clause.

买方进一步承诺和统一确保买方的独立审计师和任何代理人、雇员或独立承包人遵守本条规定。

Procure (保证) and ensure (确保) are with the same meaning. Here we omit procure and only translate ensure. The last “Purchaser” also can be omitted according to Chinese expression, thus there is only one 买方 in translation.

The formation of this Contract, its validity, interpretation, execution and settlement of disputes in connection herewith shall be governed by the laws of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), but in the event that there is no published and public available law in the PRC governing a particular matter relating to this Contract, reference shall be made to general international commercial practices.

本合同的订立、效力、解释、执行及合同争议的解决，均受中华人名共和国（“中国”）法律管辖。中国颁布的法律对本合同相关的某一事项未作规定的，参照国际商业惯例。

It is obvious that the Law is open to public once published. Thus we do not need to add “publicly available” in translation.

Read Also: Amplification in E-C Legal Translation

Repetition

Repetition is in the other side of ellipsis. Actually, repetition is also a kind of word-adding, but it adds the same word. We need repetition in translation, because English and Chinese languages have different sentence structure and figure of speech. In other words, some omitted words or phrases in English need to be represent in Chinese, thus we have to repeat them in our translation. The purpose is to make the translation accord to Chinese expression habit.

Examples:

After Completion, the Vendor shall not in any way hold itself out or permit itself to be held out as being interested in, or in any way connected with, the Company.

交易完成后，卖方不得自称，也不得允许他人宣称卖方在公司中拥有权益或与公司有任何关联。

If the Vendor shall fail or refuse to transfer any Shares pursuant to the provisions of this Clause X to the Purchaser, the Company Secretary or any other person appointed by the Board shall be deemed to have been irrevocably authorized by the Vendor, with full power to execute, complete and deliver, in the name and on behalf of the Vendor, transfers of the Shares to the Purchaser, against payment of the purchase price therefore to the Company.

如果卖方未根据本条规定向或拒绝向买方转让任何股份，公司秘书或董事会委派的任何其他人应被视为经卖方不可撤销的授权，有全权在买方向公司支付购买价款后，以卖方的名义并代表卖方签署、完成并向购买人交付股份转让证。

Party A has full legal right, power and authority to execute and deliver this Contract and all of the agreements and documents referred to in this Contract to which Party A is a party and to observe and perform its obligations hereunder and thereunder.

甲方在法律上有充分的权利、权力和权限签署和交付本合同及本合同中提及的该方为一方的所有协议和文件，遵守并履行本合同及该等协议和文件规定的义务。

“Hereunder and thereunder” in this sentence mean “here and there”, must be restored to “this Contract and all the agreement and documents”. Thus we need to repeat these words in our translation.

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