scholarly journals LIMITS OF TRANSLATABILITY OF LEGAL TERMS

Author(s):  
N.A. Kalmazova ◽  
Yu.A. Kuznetsova

The article presents a modern approach to the issue of translatability/untranslatability and the limits of translatability of legal texts. Full translatability of legal texts is hindered by linguistic factors: 1) categorization of reality (discrepancy between the concept of a term in the source language (SL) and the target language (TL); 2) the presence of ethnographic gaps (the absence of both concepts and terms in the TL); 3) differences in the stylistic traditions of the SL and TL (different stylistic components of the texts of SL and TL). Some elements reflecting the content of the legal text also complicate translatability: 1) the alienation of the legal concept to the culture and perception of the recipient of the translation (groundlessness and impossibility of the existence of the concept in the TL); 2) the absence of a linguistic genre in the host culture (the algorithm for presenting textual information is not typical for the TL).

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


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pi-Chan Hu ◽  
Le Cheng

AbstractIn this research, we established a small scale corpus with abstracts in English and Chinese from the law reviews of Taiwan. We identified problems found in these abstracts and classified them into several categories. After analyzing the problems, we found that translators are faced with numerous problems when translating legal texts: the influence of ordinary language, lack of reliable reference tools, insufficiency of legal knowledge, deficiency in the target language or source language, and the peculiar characteristics of legal language. These problems simply render the task of translating even more intricate. Strategies will be proposed to enhance the ability of legal translators and to help them to overcome these obstacles.


Author(s):  
Jānis Veckrācis

The translation of legal documents – not a new field in translation practice or theoretical discourse – gained a new dimension for translators’ work in Latvia when, after restoring independence, the country was reintegrated into international processes and organizations. Consequently, the development of legal text translation competence has also become an important task in the study programs related to translation of LSP texts. Against this background, the paper addresses some of the issues of understanding and interpreting legislation in the translation situation, with a particular focus on working with the functions and implications of sentence syntax. This part of the work provides the translator with the opportunity to find not only successful grammatical solutions in the target language sentences, but above all, a prerequisite for understanding the meaning of the source text. For the purposes of the study, the relevant aspects are briefly outlined in a theoretical context by focusing on the specific features of legal texts and the competence-related requirements for translators; it also includes an analysis of examples based on both published translations of legislation and the typical problems encountered in student translations. The study leads to several conclusions. Accuracy (also with regard to interpretation), an element of the general concepts of equivalence/adequacy, stands out as a specific aspect and criterion of legal text translation quality; it is necessary to ensure that the meaning of terms is not broadened or narrowed and that the applicability or explicit/implicit attitude is not altered – translations of a number of units and elements tend to be almost literal. The practice of translating legal texts generally requires that target texts be rendered as consistently as possible, which to a large extent implies an almost literal relationship with the source text; any changes need explicit justification. A specific aspect of translators’ competence is the examination undertaken during the pre-translation phase to determine the applicability of the relevant legal provisions and select the most appropriate sources of information. An important prerequisite for a quality translation is understanding the essence of the source sentence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 51-70
Author(s):  
Aušra Kamandulytė

The object of this article is metaphorical terms in EU legal discourse. It discusses the concept of a metaphorical term, the usage of such terms in EU legal acts and their role in modern LSP texts, with a focus on their translation. The study analyses metaphorical terms with the lexeme “green” as used in secondary legislation, published between 2016 and 2017, and the motivation of term formation in the source language and translation strategies of rendering these terms into Lithuanian and Italian. The results suggest that in most cases word-for-word translation is used when translating colour-based metaphorical terms, thereby preserving the colour lexeme of the source language in the target language and, thus, the metaphorical character of the term itself. Although the study covers a relatively short period, it confirms the idea that has already been raised in some papers on terminology about an increasing trend of using metaphorical terms in Lithuanian legal texts, even though this is less persistent than in Italian, the language chosen for comparison.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-239
Author(s):  
Mette Hjort-Pedersen

For many years translation theorists have discussed the degree of translational freedom a legal translator has in rendering the meaning of a legal source text in a translation. Some believe that in order to achieve the communicative purpose, legal translators should focus on readability and bias their translation towards the target language community. Others insist that because of the special nature of legal texts and the sometimes binding force of legal translations, translators should stay as close to the source text as possible, i.e., bias their translation towards the source language community. But what is the relationship between these ‘academic’ observations and the way professional users and producers, i.e., lawyers and translators, think of legal translation? This article examines how actors on the Danish legal translation market view translational manoeuvres that result in a more or less close relationship between a legal source text and its translation, and also the translator’s power to decide what the nature of this relationship should be and how it should manifest itself in the translation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khairani Hayat Situmorang ◽  
I. W. Dirgeyasa ◽  
Zainuddin Zainuddin

The research dealt with Metaphor Sentences. The aims of this study were: (1) to find out the translation strategies of metaphors are used in The Magic of Thinking Big and (2) to describe the translation strategies maintain metaphors in The Magic of Thinking Big. The research was conducted by using qualitative design. The data of this study were sentences. The data were collected through documentary technique and the instrument was the documentary sheet. The technique of data analysis was descriptive. The finding of this study revealed that: (1) The metaphor in The magic of Thinking Big were translated by applying six translation strategies, namely: word for word Translation (5.3%) lieral translation (4.3%), faithful translation (57.5%), Free translation (3.2%), communicative translation (30.5%) and discursive creation was found (2.2%). (2) The metaphors are maintained that found in the Magic of Thinking Big are original metaphors turned into another original metaphors, stock metaphors turned into another stock metaphors, adapted metaphors turned into adapted metaphors, dead metaphors turned into dead metaphors, original metaphor turned into stock metaphor, stock metaphor turned into original metaphor, meanwhile, 10 original metaphors and 1 dead metaphor are no longer classified as metaphors. Language has special characteristic that is metaphor sentences, therefore in the case of translating of metaphor sentences in which their concept in unknown for readers, the translator often faces the problems to find out the translation strategies to translate metaphor in a source language (SL) and how the metaphor sentences are maintained in the target language (TL).Keywords : Metaphor, Translation Strategies, Maintain Metaphor


LINGUISTICA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dian Sukma Lestari And Zainuddin

The aim of this study were to find out category shift types used in thetranslation of novel To Kill A Bird and to describe of how category shift is translatedin the novel from English into Indonesian. This study were conducted by usingdescriptive qualitative method. The data of the study were words, phrases, andclauses in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird which is translated into Indonesian byFemmy Syahrianni. It was found that there were 280 data in the novel from Englishinto Indonesian. The data analysis were taken by listing and bolding. Documentarysheets used as the instrument to collect the data. The data were analyzed based onMiles and Huberman (2014) by condensation which consists of selecting, focusing,simplifying, abstracting and transforming and then data display by using table inorder to get easy analyzing the data. The result of this study were (1) there were fourtypes of category shifts found in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird namely; structureshifts (36.78%), class shift (27.14%), unit shift (32.5%) and intra-system shift(3.27%). (2) The process of category shifts in the translation novel by havingmodifier-head in source language changed into head-modifier in target language,adverb in source language changed into verb in target language, one unit in sourcelanguage changed into some units in target language. and plural in source languagechanged into singular in target language.


JURNAL ELINK ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diah Astuty

his study aims to describe the sorts of lexical constraints that appeared on the students translation when translating some source language texts into some target language texts. The competence of linguistic fields that the students have acquired is in the fact assumed to be inadequate and it can cause the lexical constraints.Keywords: CALLS, lexical constraints,source language text,target language text


2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-189
Author(s):  
Jana Šnytová

Summary In this paper, I focused on the translation work by František Benhart which, due to its extensiveness, was of crucial importance to the reception of Slovenian literature in the Czech cultural environment of the second half of the 20th century. The aim of this study is the linguistic analysis of the literary translations of selected literary works of the canon of Slovenian literature into Czech. Translation can be considered to be a cultural transposition, i. e. a transfer of the text and cultural environment from the source language into the text and cultural environment of the target language. In the analyses, I focused on some partial issues that either dominated in the particular text (expressivity, phraseology, idiomatic or proper names) or occurred across the texts analysed (realia) and in this context, I searched for his specific translation solutions. I also examined short excerpts of the original text and its translated counterpart looking for the presence of stylistically marked elements. Based on the results of individual analyses, I presented Benhart’s specific translation approaches and I attempted to summarize and indicate the basic features of his translation method. Furthermore, my second objective was to point out the possible consequences of Benhart’s translation method for the reception of the Slovenian literature in the Czech cultural environment.


Naharaim ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-171
Author(s):  
Massimiliano De Villa

AbstractThe concurrence of different languages is one of the tenets of Rosenzweig Sprachdenken and of his translation activity which finds its main theoretical explication in the afterword to his ‘Zweiundneunzig Hymnen und Gedichte des Yehuda Halevi’ (Konstanz, Wöhrle, 1924). In the afterword to the translation of ha-Levi’s lyrical corpus, Rosenzweig outlines a translation model which, trying to convey all the morphological, syntactic and lexical traits of the source language into the target language, gives way to a real linguistic fusion which defies the limits and boundaries of expression and opens onto a redemptive perspective. On the basis of this concluding note and of some passages from ‘The Star of Redemption’, the article tries to analyse Rosenzweig’s idea of language and of its nexus with the idea of redemption with reference to Walter Benjamin’s famous essay ‘The Task of the Translator’ and, as a point of convergence, with Paul Celan’s conception of poetic language.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document