Conceptualizing cultural discrepancies in legal translation: A case-based study

Semiotica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (216) ◽  
pp. 131-149
Author(s):  
Le Cheng ◽  
Mingyu Gong ◽  
Jian Li
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Systems Of Systems ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Case Based

AbstractBy exploring the cultural discrepancies in Chinese legal texts and their English versions and to what extent legal and cultural discrepancies influence and constrain legal translation, the study argues that it is useful to consider cultural discrepancies within a semiotic framework. Language is a phenomenon and factor that links different cultures; the use of language is crucial to any legal system. Law, as a cultural product, is attended by cultural discrepancies when switched into other languages for the purpose of achieving equivalence. After a brief overview of cultural differences in translation, legal translation in particular, the study is set to examine the role of translation in crossing through different legal cultures and backgrounds and investigate barriers in the process of translation. Investigating cultural discrepancies in legal translation within a semiotic framework allows us to focus on certain interpretations by acknowledging that legal texts are composed with systems of systems and interacting with other cultural aspects in a wider context.

scholarly journals The Role of Generic Competence and Professional Expertise in Legal Translation. The Case of English and Polish Probate Documents

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-67
Author(s):  
Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski
Keyword(s):  
Professional Community ◽  
Professional Expertise ◽  
Related Concept ◽  
Legal Process ◽  
Deceased Person ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Legal Texts

Abstract This paper seeks to demonstrate how the concept of generic competence (primarily intended for monolingual specialized communication) could be extended to address important issues in translating legal texts. First, generic competence is discussed against the backdrop of the related concept of translation competence. Then, a case study is presented which examines a closely related set of documents employed by the professional community of lawyers (represented by an English solicitor and Polish advocate) engaged in the specialist domain of probate law (legal process related to the estate of a deceased person). It is argued that both generic competence and professional expertise should be included in the range of competencies required for the translator of legal texts.

Attracting prosocial lenders from different cultures to help others in microlending

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-214
Author(s):  
JungHwa (Jenny) Hong ◽  
Kyung-Ah (Kay) Byun
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individualistic Culture ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Moderating Role

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the role of culture and future orientation in lenders’ prosocial microlending behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments examine how different cultural backgrounds, either individualistic or collectivistic, influenced microlenders’ prosocial behaviors, including the amount of microlending, the willingness to help and the length of commitment. Further, the moderating role of future orientation among individualists is investigated. Findings Results indicate that cultural differences influence prosocial microlending differently such that individualists give less to people in need compared to collectivists. Further, the author found that future orientation helps lenders in individualistic culture to improve prosocial microlending behaviors. Originality/value This paper emphasizes the role of cultural background and future orientation in promoting lenders’ prosocial giving in the context of microlending. The results assist social marketers to understand how to motivate giving behaviors via microlending among lenders in different cultures depending on future orientation.

Toward a Theory of Legal Interpretation

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Soames
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Legal Interpretation ◽  
Empirical Theory ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Ideal System ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
The Law

This chapter is concerned with the content of legal norms governing the interpretation of legal texts by legally authoritative actors in a legal system. As such, a theory of legal interpretation is a theory of the content of the law, codified or uncodified, governing legally authorized interpreters. Thought of in this way, it is a nonnormative empirical theory related to, but distinct from, (a) empirical theories about what the mass of judges in a particular legal system actually do in the cases before them; (b) moral theories about what they morally should do in particular cases; and (c) politically normative theories about what the role of the judiciary should be in an ideal system. The most important question to be answered by such a theory is, what precisely is required of legally authoritative interpreters, how much and what kind of latitude are they allowed, and what factors are they to take into account in their interpretations?

scholarly journals Hermeneutika Hukum: Prinsip dan Kaidah Interpretasi Hukum

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Urbanus Ura Weruin ◽  
Dwi Andayani B ◽  
St. Atalim
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Literary Meaning ◽  
Rules And Principles

This legal hermeneutic article efforts to explore and formulates norms, rules, principles, standards, and criterions that must be referenced in order to understand, analyze, interpret, and explicate the intention and complexities meaning of legal texts, not only according to literary meaning but also to reveal the whole meaning  of pratices and outcome of the legal adjudication. These norms, rules, and principles link to primary or general priciples, attitudes and goodwill of intepreter, aim of interpretation, interest of people, structure of legal system, character and role of interpreter, and how to undestand and treate legal noms as text. This bibliographical study and empiris research article find out the meaning, history, and aplication of legal hermeneutic in practices of adjudication. One case from legal adjudication (court dicision) will be analysed here according to principles of legal hermeneutic.

Cultural Impact on Global Trade

2021 ◽  
pp. 196-210
Author(s):  
Anusha Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Foreign Markets ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Culturally Different ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Cultural Components ◽  
Business Relation

As in any international business relation, factors such as political, economic, social, technological, and legal dimensions are expected to significantly impact trade activities. Social factors include the cultural aspects of exports and imports along with the differences among foreign markets. Culture poses to be complementary to FDI and exports. Cultural components include food, language, clothing, values, traditions, and beliefs, which differ from region to region across the world. When the countries are culturally different, investing and trading becomes a risk. Hence, in today's scenario, it is very important for the organizations to understand cultural differences in order to compete with their competitors. Understanding these cultural differences owes the opportunity to make or break the success of a foreign trade opportunity. The global businesses need to adhere to the demands and perceptions of different cultures in the countries when they purchase different products.

People, Places and Cultures: Education and the Cultural Politics of Sustainable Development

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Offei Manteaw
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Comparative ◽  
Development Paradigm ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Educational Thinking

This paper explores the cultural politics of the concept of sustainable development by examining the role of education in the discourse of education for sustainable development (ESD). Using an international comparative framework, the author discusses cultural differences, particularly as they relate to Western industrialised societies and developing countries, by problematising taken-for-granted assumptions of globalised approaches to ESD. The United States and Ghana are used as case studies to highlight the different ways in which development is conceptualised in different cultures and settings. The author also critically explores what he describes as an American Development Paradigm and compares that to an African Development Paradigm . More significantly, he shows how unequal relationships, cultural differences, as well as different development aspirations shape people's understanding of sustainable development, and how that informs educational thinking and practice in different places and cultures.

scholarly journals Legal Language and The Legal Translator

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Hanne Grøn
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Substantive Law ◽  
Conceptual Meaning

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.

scholarly journals Linguocultural pecularities of phraseological units in English and Ukrainian languages

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
O. H. Permyakova ◽  
◽  
S. A. Konovalchuk ◽  
I. I. Shundikova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
National Language ◽  
National Character ◽  
Environmental Interpretation ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Cultural Features

Phraseological units directly or indirectly carry cultural information about the world and pass it from generation to generation, reproduce the national culture and its mentality, show the features of the national figurative way of thinking. A phraseological unit is the soul of each national language, in which the spirit and specificity of the nation are revealed in a unique way. The article deals with the role of English and Ukrainian phraseology as a means of national cultural reflection. It is pointed out that the phraseological units are a means of reflection of national culture and a valuable source of information about the culture and national character of the nation. The specific features of English and Ukrainian phraseology, which are reflected in the pictorial thinking of the nation, have been depicted and the examples of their written interpretation have been given. The linguistic and cultural features of phraseological units in English and Ukrainian which contain such components as: „God” – the object of comparison, „nationality” and „toponym” have been presented and analyzed. It has been proven that toponymical phraseological units detect certain features of verbalization in different cultures and these features are determined by the subjective way of the environmental interpretation. The linguistic and cultural aspects of phraseology in Ukrainian and English have been analyzed only in some cases, taking into account the cultural and literary bases of the idioms origin. This problem can be also studied on the examples of the phraseological units where the culture is reflected through the connection with cultural and national connotations, standards, symbols, stereotypes and associations specific only for one language. English and Ukrainian languages possess a variety of idioms of such type, which need further and thorough investigation

The Integrative Role of Sport in Multicultural Societies

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis ◽  
Eleftheria Morela ◽  
Anne-Marie Elbe ◽  
Olga Kouli ◽  
Xavier Sanchez
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Cultures

Sport participation has been recognized as an important socializing agent; the sport environment is considered a suitable setting for the development of social and moral values, particularly for youth. Therefore, it can be argued that participation in sport may reinforce understanding and respect of cultural diversity and foster the integration of migrants. In this paper, we review the existing literature on the integrative role of sport among individuals and groups with differing cultural backgrounds. The existing findings support the role sport may have in promoting integration; nonetheless, some controversy exists. On the one side, there is evidence suggesting that sport can promote interaction among people from different cultures, while also helping individuals maintain ties with their own cultural groups, thus facilitating the maintenance of their cultural heritage. On the other side, there are also indications that sport participation may accentuate cultural differences, thus evoking tensions. Therefore, it appears that sport participation per se may not have the strength to achieve the anticipated integration; rather, sport would provide a common ground where integration can be cultivated. Future directions are discussed to encourage the development of research that enhances further our understanding on the integrative role of sport in multicultural societies.

scholarly journals Translating English Legal Lexical Features into Arabic: Challenges and Possibilities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies ◽  
Mahmoud Altarabin
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Connotative Meaning ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Contextual Meaning

The challenges of legal translation between English and Arabic are not sufficiently investigated despite the impact such challenges can have on the translation product. There is a huge volume of translation between English and Arabic for legal texts such as contracts of various types, wills, articles of association, lawsuits, to name but a few. Notwithstanding the pitfalls of translation between English and Arabic in general, translating legal texts poses certain challenges of critical implications. Such challenges can be attributed to the difference in the structure of the legal texts, types of legal texts, and, most importantly, the difference in the legal system between the Arab countries on the one hand and the English-speaking countries on the other. The present paper aims to discuss the lack of uniformity in legal translation, differences within the same legal system and the translator’s lack of familiarity with legal terms. It also aims to highlight certain challenges such as the contextual meaning and connotative meaning.

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