scholarly journals ZUR VERSTÄNDLICHKEIT VON ÜBERSETZUNGEN DEUTSCHER UND POLNISCHER GERICHTSBENENNUNGEN

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 65-84
Author(s):  
Paweł BIELAWSKI

The focus of this paper is centered on the translation of German and Polish court names. Based on a thorough analysis of the translation terms used in legal literature and dictionaries, the author concludes that the court names are often being translated in a way that makes it impossible for the reader to correctly identify the institution in question, thus undermining the comprehensibility of the target texts significantly.Pointing to the differences between the court systems of Germany and Poland, the author contemplates whether the dissimilarities between two institutions from different legal systems need always to be marked in the translation. On the basis of the comparative law theory, the meaning features essential for both legal communication and legal translation are identified and presented.In the next part, the author examines how to translate the court names so that the institution at issue is instantly recognizable in the target text. As a result, three comprehensive translation techniques are proposed.The presented translation techniques shall contribute to improving the comprehensibility of legal texts, and constitute an alternative to the  descriptive translation of these institutions.

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Alenka Kocbek

The paper proposes a model for translating legal texts which is intended to direct the translation process through a series of stages to the final product—a skopos-oriented target text in which the potential pitfalls resulting from translating between different legal languages and systems have been considered. The model unites different translation stances (Snell-Hornby’s integrated approach, the functionalist views with the skopos theory and the concept of cultureme, as well as Chesterman’s theory of memes) with the findings of comparative law regarding differences between legal systems and their impact on legal languages. It consists of ten stages, each addressing one of the specific linguistic and extralinguistic aspects of legal text types. When translating legal texts, a very specific situation may arise with respect to the cultural embeddedness of the target text, since memes of different legal cultures may co-exist on its various levels. This is especially the case when the parties involved in legal communication occurring through translation decide to use a third language as a lingua franca, which may lack any direct correlation with the legal culture(s) underlying such communication.


Babel ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sieglinde E. Pommer

Whereas translating is generally considered to be a creative activity, mentioning this in the context of legal translation is, rather paradoxically, widely frowned upon despite the fact that the ­incongruency of legal systems makes finding exact equivalents particularly difficult in legal texts. Convinced that in fact translating the law requires taking insightful judgments, detecting interesting alternatives, coming up with novel ways to communicate ideas, and finding useful ­solutions to complex problems, the author examines the dynamic concept of creativity and redefines its meaning with regard to legal translation.


Author(s):  
Hanne Grøn

It is impossible to set up standards of translation performance and equivalence which will apply to any legal translation because the "languages of law" are as varied as the cases that reach the courts every day. Moreover, the translation of legal texts is often complicated by the lack of exact lexical equivalents in the TL's own legal system so that a transfer involves a high amount of "creative production". Obviously this production should be based on a profound extra-linguistic knowledge of both legal systems involved to avoid the pitfalls which the difference in conceptual meaning necessarily entails. Thus research into the TL's substantive law must be the first requirement in any legal translation context.


Author(s):  
Aris Wuryantoro ◽  
H.D. Edi Subroto ◽  
M.R. Nababan

Legal translation is the transferring the meaning from source language text into target language which not only consists of language system but also legal system. This research aims to analyze the translation  techniques  used  by  the  Indonesian  sworn  translators  in  translating  legal  texts  from English into Indonesian. This research uses descriptive qualitative method. Data obtained through content analysis on translations of the Indonesian sworn translators containing Certificate of Live Birth, Certificate of Marriage, Principles Statement of Terms and Conditions. The result of the research reveals: a) single translation technique dominates the translation technique in translating legal and law scientific texts from English into Indonesian obtains (66,67%) data consisting  of 10 variants (literal, amplification, recognized, reduction, borrowing, modulation, transposition, adaptation, colque, and description); b) couplet translation technique (32,%) data consisting of 16 variants (literal and borrowing, literal and recognized equivalent, literal and reduction, literal and adaptation, literal and amplification, literal and transposition, literal and modulation, literal and colque, borrowing and amplification, literal and description, borrowing and modulation, borrowing and adaptation, borrowing and transposition, modulation and colque, reduction and colque,  and reduction and adaptation), and triplet translation technique (1,19%) data consisting of 4 variants (literal + borrowing + modulation, literal + amplification + transposition, literal + amplification + borrowing, and literal + transposition + reduction). Researcher concludes that translation technique of legal texts from English into Indonesian conducted by Indonesian sworn translators contains three kinds of translation techniques, <em>i.e. </em>single translation technique, couplet translation technique, and triplet translation technique with 30 variants


Author(s):  
Servais Martial Akpaca

The aim of this paper is to make an inventory of the problems that translators encounter when they translate the documents issued by a specific African human rights court. More specifically translating at the ACHPR requires the knowledge of legal language and familiarity with a particular type of legal texts as well as competence in human rights conventions and charters and general translation skills. In an attempt to address these issues, this paper adopts a threefold approach, namely a historical approach recalling some legal systems and traditions upheld by courts, a theoretical approach throwing light on some key concepts and a lexical approach that makes it possible to extract legal terms from texts issued by the court and match them with their equivalents in the target language. The result of this research work is that legal translation is a specialised area due to the legal terms and systems involved in it. Unlike other specialised areas where the link between the signifier and the signified is fixed, in legal translation, the signified may be inflected due to differences between legal systems. Finding an equivalent for a legal term in another legal system or in a target language may beat times difficult and even impossible.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Radegundis Stolze

The article describes, on the basis of hermeneutics, the specific perspective from which a translator may approach legal texts, as translation is seen as a personalized activity. Different text types are rooted in a specific legal system and fulfil their function within a special field of law, and the cultural and legal background is evident in linguistic aspects on a textual level. Comparative law carries out research on the differences in legal concepts, whereas translation studies and practice use this knowledge as a basis for work. Legal terminology has various levels of abstraction and appears in texts along with general language words. Fields of orientation for the translator are presented here, such as legal contexts, genre, concepts and style. This should be combined with proficiency in writing according to the text function, terminology and standard formulae. The translator tries to make source cultural and legal aspects transparent for target readers, as translation is always a means of comprehension that furthers communication.


Hikma ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-260
Author(s):  
Jorge Valdenebro Sánchez

Resumen: Los ordenamientos jurídicos, a pesar de que puedan pertenecer al mismo tronco común, como es el caso de Francia y España, son propios de cada país y, por ende, distintos al resto de ordenamientos de otros países. Esto da lugar en traducción a un anisomorfismo cultural. El traductor debe ser consciente de ello para no caer en errores de traducción que van a imposibilitar la comprensión del lector de la lengua meta. Conviene saber que, en traducción jurídica, no se traduce una realidad cultural por otra, sino que se tiene que manifestar en la lengua meta la realidad cultural de la lengua origen. Esto se presenta como un reto para el traductor, quien deberá contar con unos amplios conocimientos culturales de ambos países y una capacidad de documentación adecuada. Por eso, el presente estudio tiene como objetivo poner de relieve la importancia de los conocimientos culturales en traducción y, más concretamente, en traducción jurídica a través del análisis de una serie de términos que provienen de la rama jurídico-penal. En dicho análisis, encontraremos la explicación del concepto de la lengua origen, el contexto, la propuesta (o propuestas de traducción), la técnica de traducción que hemos empleado, así como comentarios en los que explicamos sus problemas de traducción y su anisomorfismo cultural.Palabras clave: anisomorfismo cultural, realidades culturales, técnicas de traducción, traducción jurídica, terminología penal. Abstract: The legal systems, even if they may belong to the same branche of law, as is the case in France and Spain, are specific in each country and, therefore, different from the rest of the legal systems of other countries. This results in translation to a cultural anisomorphism. The translator must be aware of this in order not to fall into translation errors that will make it impossible for the reader to understand the text in the target language. It is important to know that, in legal translation, one cultural reality is not translated by another, but that the cultural reality of the source language must be expressed in the target language. This is presented as a challenge for the translator, who must have extensive cultural knowledge of both countries and an adequate documentation capacity. Therefore, this study aims to highlight the importance of cultural knowledge in translation and, more specifically, in legal translation through the analysis of a series of terms that come from the legal-criminal branch. In this analysis, we will find the explanation of the concept of the source language, the context, the proposal (or translation proposals), the translation technique we have used, as well as comments in which we explain their translation problems and their cultural anisomorphism.Keywords: cultural anisomorphism, cultural realities, translation techniques, legal translation, criminal terminology.


2019 ◽  
pp. 3-44
Author(s):  
Uwe Kischel

This introductory chapter provides an overview of comparative law. Comparative law involves research into foreign legal systems. It cannot be limited to a simple analysis of the legal situation as revealed by legal texts. Rather, the comparative lawyer must also take into account the realities of law in action in a country. Comparative law then requires an evaluation of the legal results found for each country under scrutiny. Once the comparative lawyer determines which differences and similarities exist in the solutions found by different legal systems, the comparative lawyer can approach the central question of comparative law: the classification and evaluation of these results. The chapter then differentiates comparative law from foreign law studies.


Author(s):  
Juliette R. Scott

In Chapter 2, the performance of legal translation is analysed, seen as a negotiation and informed, inter alia, by comparative law, genre theory and functionalism, from four perspectives: language/discourse; legal systems; genre; and textual purpose. These comprise the underpinnings of the author’s multidimensional model of the legal translation practitioner’s textual agency, seen as a set of dynamic and non-linear interactions. Each facet is discussed individually to provide the background for the model which is presented at the end of the chapter. Levels of (c)overtness are also highlighted as a way of assisting clients in expressing their requirements, and emphasis is placed on the relevance and importance of differentiating translation status when work is commissioned.


Author(s):  
Panagiotis G. Krimpas

<p>Like translation in general, and even law itself, legal translation is an interdisciplinary field. Legal linguistics (jurilinguistics), comparative law, general law, terminology, text-linguistics and pragmatics, all have a share in legal translation. The latter is generally viewed as a sort of technical translation (Venuti 1995: 41) and legal language as a technical language (Cao 1997: 18). Those who argue for its special status often claim that legal translation is the antipode of technical translation (Bocquet 2000: 16). On the other hand, there are scholars who argue against this special status of legal translation, claiming there is nothing special about legal translation (Harvey 2002: 180). More moderate views are also found (Herbots 1987: 814). In such questions it takes no true/false answer. Rather, there are many sorts of legal translation. Of course, each view has different implications as far as the legal translator’s skills are concerned. Our discussion starts with a presentation of some key-views about legal translation, with particular emphasis on opposing ones. Then we present the main professional profiles of the legal translator in Greece and the relevant legislation. Who does translate legal texts? What skills do they have? How do they describe their profession and/or services in social media and/or professional websites? Who is the ideal legal translator for the several categories of clients? Which is the right kind of education and/or training for every sort of legal translator? Those are some of the questions that this article tries to give an answer to. After presenting the main functions of translated legal texts, the article closes with a comparison of legal translator’s professional profiles in Greece on the basis of those text functions.</p>


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document