TEACHING LEGAL TRANSLATION – A CASE STUDY OF MAKING STUDENTS AWARE OF TRANSLATION RISKS RESULTING FROM PLURICENTRISM

Fachsprache ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 52-74
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Matulewska ◽  
Joanna Kic-Drgas ◽  
Paula Trzaskawka

This article examines the phenomenon of pluricentrism in language for legal purposes. The purpose of the research is to discuss the coexistence of different language varieties resulting from the existence of pluricentric languages in a legal context, and how this can affect translation decisions. The research focuses on English and German. The authors apply the comparative method to identify differences and similarities in legal terminology, in order to develop the resulting didactic implications for legal translation courses. The methods used in the article encompass: the analysis of comparable texts, the terminological analysis of research material (comparative law methodology), the theory of skopos, and an analysis of the relevant literature. The research material mostly consisted of civil law documents of countries where the languages under discussion are spoken. The research hypothesis is that if a given language is an official language in more than one country, the legal languages are not uniform and vary in respect to national legal language variants (similar to general language), and consequently there is a risk of making an error. Thus the students of translation studies must be made aware of the resultant differences in order to solve translation problems more efficiently and to reduce the number of errors in specialised translation. The analysis of the source text through the prism of terminology should be related to the legal system of the country concerned. Students of translation courses should be aware of the semantic differences between legal terms in order to find proper equivalents.

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
Esther Vázquez y del Árbol

AbstractLegal translation is increasingly demanded in the professional market.When a translator tackles the translation of a source text from the same law system as to the target text the difficulties encountered may not prove very onerous. Nevertheless, when the translation brief comprises heterogeneous legal systems it places the translator into a difficult translation task. That is precisely the case of Common Law versus Civil Law and the legislation arising therefrom: Procedural Law. In this paper we will explain the features of procedural legal discourse and the tools for providing an adequate translation (English-Spanish/Spanish-English) for the terminology and phraseology identified in our bilingual corpus.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-300
Author(s):  
Guadalupe Soriano Barabino

AbstractLegal translation training involves the acquisition and development of a set of sub-competences that constitute legal translation competence (Cao, Deborah. 2007. Translating law. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters; Prieto Ramos, Fernando. 2011. Developing legal translation competence: An integrative process-oriented approach. Comparative Legilinguistics. International Journal for Legal Communications 5. 7–21; Piecychna, Beata. 2013. Legal translation competence in the light of translational hermeneutics. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 34(47). 141–159; Soriano Barabino, Guadalupe. 2016. Comparative law for legal translators. Oxford: Peter Lang; Soriano Barabino, Guadalupe. 2018. La formación del traductor jurídico: Análisis de la competencia traductora en traducción jurídica y propuesta de programa formativo. Quaderns: Revista de Traduccio 25. 217–229). The development of those sub-competences is part of a complex process where students are faced with different concepts and translation strategies and techniques which are not necessarily easy to grasp for trainee translators (Way, Catherine. 2014. Structuring a legal translation course: A framework for decision-making in legal translation training. In Le Cheng, King Kui Sin & Anne Wagner (eds.), The Ashgate handbook of legal translation. Farnham: Ashgate), particularly when applied to a legal context. It is our experience that translation students tend to focus on the product (text production) and do not spend enough time analysing the source text, which results in obvious mistakes in mainly – but not only – cultural (legal), textual and linguistic aspects. The interdisciplinary nature of legal translation calls for an integrative model for teaching and learning. The model presented provides trainees with a framework for source text analysis that places the communicative situation and the translation brief at the core from which three fundamental dimensions, based on the aspects mentioned above, develop. Elements such as the legal cultures involved, legal text typologies or the level of specialisation of terms and discourse are some of the aspects to be considered, so allowing trainees to achieve a thorough understanding of the source text for a conscious translation. The model will be applied to a specific source text and translation brief.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Dowling ◽  
Somikazi Deyi ◽  
Anele Gobodwana

While there have been a number of studies on the decontextualisation and secularisation of traditional ritual music in America, Taiwan and other parts of the globe, very little has been written on the processes and transformations that South Africa’s indigenous ceremonial songs go through over time. This study was prompted by the authors’ interest in, and engagement with the Xhosa initiation song Somagwaza, which has been re-imagined as a popular song, but has also purportedly found its way into other religious spaces. In this article, we attempted to investigate the extent to which the song Somagwaza is still associated with the Xhosa initiation ritual and to analyse evidence of it being decontextualised and secularised in contemporary South Africa. Our methodology included an examination of the various academic treatments of the song, an analysis of the lyrics of a popular song, bearing the same name, holding small focus group discussions, and distributing questionnaires to speakers of isiXhosa on the topic of the song. The data gathered were analysed using the constant comparative method of analysing qualitative research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noezafri Amar

This research was aimed at describing the accuracy level of Google Translate especially in translating English text into Indonesian based on language error analysis and the use of equivalence strategy. The data were collected by taking one paragraph from Johann Gottfried Herder’s Selected Writings on Aesthetics book as the source text. Then they were translated by Google Translate (GT). The data of GT translation were analyzed by comparing them with the measurement instrument of translation equivalence level and elaborating the equivalence strategy of GT. By doing so the language errors were seen thus the accuracy level of GT translation could be described. The result of this research showed that (1) out of 13 source data only 4 or 31% are accurate translation, 7 or 54% are less accurate translation, and 2 or 15% are inaccurate translation. Therefore it is implied that its reliability for accurate level is only 31%. Half of them is less understandable and a few are not understandable. (2) If the appropriate equivalence translation strategy is sufficiently transposition and literal, GT can produce an accurate translation. (3) If the appropriate equivalence translation strategy is combined strategy between transposition and modulation or descriptive, more difficult strategies, GT just produce less accurate translation because it kept using literal and transposition strategies. (4) But if the appropriate equivalence translation strategy is only modulation, GT just produce inaccurate translation which is not understandable because it can only use transposition strategy. Even if the appropriate equivalence translation strategy is just a transposition strategy, in one case, GT failed to translate and it produced inaccurate translation because its strategy is only literal. In conclusion, especially in this case study, Google Translate can only translate English source text into Indonesian correctly if the appropriate equivalence translation strategy is just literal or transposition.AbstrakPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan tingkat keakuratan Google Translate khususnya dalam menerjemahkan teks berbahasa Inggris ke dalam bahasa Indonesia berdasarkan analisis kesalahan bahasa dan penggunaan strategi pemadanan. Data dikumpulkan dengan mengambil satu paragraf dari buku Johann Gottfried Herder yang berjudul ‘Selected Writings on Aesthetics’ sebagai teks sumber. Kemudian data tersebut diterjemahkan oleh Google Translate (GT). Data terjemahan GT itu dianalisis dengan cara membandingkannya dengan instrumen pengukur tingkat kesepadanan terjemahan dan menjelaskan strategi pemadanan yang digunakan. Dengan melakukan hal tersebut kesalahan bahasanya dapat terlihat sehingga tingkat keakuratan terjemahan GT dapat dideskripsikan. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa (1) Dari 13 data sumber hanya 4 data atau 31% yang merupakan terjemahan akurat, 7 data atau 54% merupakan terjemahan yang kurang akurat, dan 2 data atau 15% merupakan terjemahan tidak akurat. Dengan demikian tingkat kehandalannya sampai pada tingkat akurat hanya sebesar 31% saja. Sementara sekitar setengahnya lagi kurang dapat dipahami. Sedangkan sisanya tidak bisa dipahami. (2) Apabila strategi pemadanan yang seharusnya dipakai cukup transposisi dan terjemahan literal saja ternyata GT mampu menghasilkan terjemahan yang akurat. (3) Apabila strategi yang harus dipakai adalah strategi kombinasi antara transposisi dan modulasi atau deskriptif, strategi yang lebih sulit, GT hanya mampu menghasilkan terjemahan yang kurang akurat karena tetap menggunakan strategi penerjemahan literal dan transposisi saja. (4) Tetapi apabila strategi yang seharusnya dipakai hanya strategi modulasi saja GT hanya menghasilkan terjemahan tidak akurat, yang tidak bisa dipahami karena hanya mampu memakai strategi transposisi saja. Bahkan jika seharusnya strategi yang dipakai adalah sekedar transposisi, pada satu kasus, GT ternyata gagal menerjemahkan dan menghasilkan terjemahan tidak akurat karena strategi yang dipakainya adalah penerjemahan literal. Sebagai simpulan, khususnya dalam studi kasus ini, Google Translate hanya mampu menerjemahkan teks sumber berbahasa Inggris ke dalam bahasa Indonesia secara akurat jika strategi pemadanannya yang sesuai hanya sekedar literal atau transposisi.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Hye Hwang ◽  
Anuj Jain

Abstract Urban landscapes have the potential to conserve wildlife. Despite increasing recognition of this potential, there are few collaborative efforts to integrate ecology and conservation principles into context-dependent, spatial and actionable design strategies. To address this issue and to encourage multi-disciplinary research on urban human–wildlife interactions, we ask the following questions. To what extent should design and planning actions be aligned with urban ecology in the context of a compact city? How can wildlife conservation meet the seemingly conflictual demands of urban development and public preference? To answer these questions, we refer to the relevant literature and a number of design projects. Using the compact tropical city of Singapore as a case study, we propose 12 design strategies. We encourage designers and planners to strengthen the links between wildlife and urban dwellers and promote wildlife conservation within cities.


Author(s):  
Gerald Stell

AbstractThis study generally looks at indigenization in languages historically introduced and promoted by colonial regimes. The case study that it presents involves Namibia, a Subsaharan African country formerly administered by South Africa, where Afrikaans was the dominant official language before being replaced by English upon independence. Afrikaans in Namibia still functions as an informal urban lingua franca while being spoken as a native language by substantial White and Coloured minorities. To what extent does the downranking of Afrikaans in Namibia co-occur with divergence from standard models historically located in South Africa? To answer this question, the study identifies variation patterns in Namibian Afrikaans phonetic data elicited from ethnically diverse young urban informants and links these patterns with perceptions and language ideologies. The phonetic data reveal divergence between Whites and Non-Whites and some convergence among Black L2 Afrikaans-speakers with Coloured varieties, while suggesting that a distinctive Black variety is emerging. The observed trends generally reflect perceived ethnoracial distinctions and segregation. They must be read against the background of shifting inter-group power relations and sociolinguistic prestige norms in independent Namibia, as well as of emergent ethnically inclusive Black urban identities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7300
Author(s):  
Anna Maria Colavitti ◽  
Alessio Floris ◽  
Sergio Serra

In Italy, after the introduction of the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape in 2004, the Regional Landscape Plan (RLP) has acquired a coordination role in the urban planning system, for the implementation of policies for landscape protection and valorisation. The case study of the RLP of Sardinia is a paradigmatic application to the coastal area of the island, which is considered most vulnerable and subject to settlement pressure. The objectives of preservation and valorisation of the territorial resources should be transferred into local planning instruments by adopting strategies aimed at the preservation of the consolidated urban fabric, at the requalification and completion of the existing built-up areas according to the principles of land take limitation and increase in urban quality. The paper investigates the state of implementation and the level of integration of landscape contents in the local plans that have been adapted to the RLP, using a qualitative comparative method. In addition, the results of the plan coherence checks, elaborated by the regional monitoring bodies after the adaptation process, have been analysed to identify the common criticalities and weaknesses. The results highlight the lack of effectiveness of the RLP, after more than a decade since its approval, considering the limited number of adequate local plans and the poor quality of their analytical and regulative contents in terms of landscape protection and valorisation. Conclusions suggest some possible ways to revise the RLP, focusing on the participation of local communities and the development of a new landscape culture.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Craig Albert ◽  
Amado Baez ◽  
Joshua Rutland

Abstract Research within security studies has struggled to determine whether infectious disease (ID) represents an existential threat to national and international security. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), it is imperative to reexamine the relationship between ID and global security. This article addresses the specific threat to security from COVID-19, asking, “Is COVID-19 a threat to national and international security?” To investigate this question, this article uses two theoretical approaches: human security and biosecurity. It argues that COVID-19 is a threat to global security by the ontological crisis posed to individuals through human security theory and through high politics, as evidenced by biosecurity. By viewing security threats through the lens of the individual and the state, it becomes clear that ID should be considered an international security threat. This article examines the relevant literature and applies the theoretical framework to a case study analysis focused on the United States.


2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (5) ◽  
pp. 441-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hoffman ◽  
Kenneth Donovan

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a common cause of many lower-extremity complications. This case study illustrates the potential perils of pet ownership associated with diabetes and neuropathy. The case describes an incident resulting in traumatic digital amputations inflicted by a patient’s pet feline while she was sleeping. In presenting this case, the potential risks of pet ownership for patients with DPN are discussed along with a review of the relevant literature. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 103(5): 441–444, 2013)


2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 741-754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Llandis Barratt-Pugh ◽  
Susanne Bahn

AbstractThis paper explores the role played by a Human Resources (HR) department orchestrating culture change during the merger of two large State departments with dissimilar cultures. A 2-year case study determined what HR strategies were having the greatest impact on embedding new organisational values to produce a more flexible culture and how these practices could be accelerated. This paper indicates how a more strategic approach by HR departments can support and develop relational managing capability that accelerates cultures change towards a more flexible work environment.This paper describes the context of the change process, the relevant literature, and outlines the research process. The findings from the phases of the data collection are summarised revealing the traumatic perceptions of the change process, but also the instrumental actions of some managers, working creatively with their teams to tackle new tasks and projects. The evidence suggests that these informal practices of task allocation were at the core of change agency in this case study and put the new flexible organisational values into action. The findings illustrate how the organisation moves from valuing managers for their technical competence to valuing managers for their relational competence.The paper then discusses what strategic HR actions were accelerating this process and illuminates the critical role of building managers as change agents. The paper concludes by confirming the need for a strategic approach by HR during organisational change. Building manager capability and supporting informal change agency practices is presented as a core focus for HR during such organisational cultural change programmes.


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