scholarly journals Intertextuality in Legislative and Private Legal Texts

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Dana Abdul Rahman Trabulsi ◽  
Abdulfattah Abu Ssaydeh
Keyword(s):  
Executive Order ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Translation Analysis ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Contractual Agreements ◽  
Legal Judgments ◽  
Different Origins

Intertextuality has always been examined narrowly in the legal sphere despite its paramount significance to the legal translation analysis and pedagogy. For quite some time, the notion of intertextuality was deemed as a literary tool that contributed significantly to the literary works of infamous authors, novelists and poets. Post to a wealth of research to substantiate the omnipresence of intertextuality in other disciplines in general and in legal texts in particular, findings have restricted the notion of intertextuality to quite few phenomena such as citation, cross references, legal judgments, quotations and assimilation.  This study, on the other hand, is an attempt to bring other implicit forms of intertextuality in legal written texts to light, through providing  evidence-based generalizations about the different forms of intertextuality that are, deliberately or inadvertently, omnipresent in legislative and private legal texts.  The notion of intertextuality was broadened to include recurrent legal terminologies and salient syntactic features in contractual agreements.  The rhetorical organization of several legislative texts, such as UAE Decree, UAE labor law and an executive order originated from the USA was also closely examined to establish the notion of intertextuality in the structure of such texts. The results revealed that contractual agreements share similar templates and rhetorical organization, and the same holds true for legislative texts.  A set of legal terminologies were found to be commonly utilized in lease agreements, employment agreements and Power of attorneys despite their different origins. Finally, the uses of a number of syntactic features were rather remarkable in contractual agreements, such as the abundant use of modal verbs to express obligation and imply futurity.

scholarly journals THE USE OF MODAL VERBS IN ENGLISH LEGAL TEXTS AND THEIR SERBIAN EQUIVALENTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 73-96
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Erić-Bukarica
Keyword(s):  
Target Language ◽  
Occurrence Rate ◽  
Frequency Of Occurrence ◽  
Source Text ◽  
English Version ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Modal Verb ◽  
Similarities And Differences

The aim of this paper is to examine and describe similarities and differences in the use and distribution of modal verbs by contrasting English and Serbian legal texts. The corpus consists of an English version of The Convention on the Rights of the Child and its official Serbian translation. We started from an assumption that modal verbs are more frequent in legal texts in English than in Serbian, where we expected to find examples of lexical items with modal meanings instead. In addition, we assumed that due to its specific use in legal texts of this kind, the English modal ‘shall’ will show the highest frequency of occurrence. A total of one hundred and twenty six (126) modal verbs and a semi-modal ‘need not’ were found in the source text. The results of the analysis support the initial presumption that ‘shall’ will stand out as the most frequent of all modal verbs (60% of all occurrences). Despite the high occurrence rate of the legalistic ‘shall’ in the source text, translation solutions in the target language only rarely take the form of the modal verb. Most often deontic notions of imperative directness and necessity in Serbian legislative writings are expressed by means of the present indicative. The analysis also indicates that translation solutions for the remaining English modal verbs most often take the form of a modal verb or a modal lexeme with a corresponding meaning in Serbian.

Is ‘best interests’ the right standard in cases like that of Charlie Gard?

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D Truog
Keyword(s):  
Harm Principle ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Clinical Decisions ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Legal Judgments ◽  
The Harm Principle

Savulescu and colleagues have provided interesting insights into how the UK public view the ‘best interests’ of children like Charlie Gard. But is best interests the right standard for evaluating these types of cases? In the USA, both clinical decisions and legal judgments tend to follow the ‘harm principle’, which holds that parental choices for their children should prevail unless their decisions subject the child to avoidable harm. The case of Charlie Gard, and others like it, show how the USA and the UK have strikingly different approaches for making decisions about the treatment of severely disabled children.

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.

The Illocutionary Act in Translating Chinese Legislative Texts

Babel ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-253
Author(s):  
Deborah Cao
Keyword(s):  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Illocutionary Act ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
High Level ◽  
Effective Translation

Abstract In this paper one of the prominent linguistic features of legal texts, the illocutionary force, is discussed through the examination of legal performatives found in Chinese legistation and their translation into English. This paper identifies some of the characteristics of illocutionary force in Chinese legislation. An analysis of Chinese legislation has identified five types of performative verbs: (a) verbs preceded by bixu/xu (must or shall); (b) verbs preceded by yingdang/yinggai/ying (should or ought to); (c) verbs in the present tense without any modal verbs: zero performative; (d) verbs preceded by keyi (may); and (e) verbs precede by bude (must not, or shall not). The article argues that illocutionary force is a paramount consideration for legal translators and that effective translation of legislative texts depends upon a high level of translational language competence including illocutionary competence. Résumé Dans cet article, l'un des éléments saillants des textes juridiques, la force illocutionaire, est discutée en examinant les verbes performatifs juridiques trouvés dans la législation chinoise et leur traduction en langue anglaise. L'article identifie quelques caractéristiques de la force illocutionaire dans la législation chinoise. L'analyse de la législation chinoise a permis de reconnaître cinq types de verbes performatifs: (a) les verbes précédés de bixu/xu, ce qui équivaut à l'auxiliaire (must or shall), c'est-à-dire deux formes du verbe 'devoir'; (b) les verbes précédés de yingdang/yinggai/ying (should or ought to), c'est-à-dire forme conditionnelle ou impérative du verbe; (c) les verbes à l'indicatif présent sans aucuns verbes de modalité; verbes performatifs (zéro); (d) les verbes précédés de keyi (may, soit verbe auxiliaire modale); et (e) les verbes précédés de bude (must not or shall not), c'est-à-dire auxiliaires impératifs négatifs. L'article soutient que la force illocutionaire forme un élément majeur pour les traducteurs de textes juridiques et que la traduction même de textes juridiques repose sur une compétence très élevée du langage traductionnel et, en ce comprise la compétence illocutionaire.

Legal Translation Studies as Interdiscipline: Scope and Evolution

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Prieto Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Professional Needs ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Further Development

This paper offers an overview of the development of Legal Translation Studies as a major interdiscipline within Translation Studies. It reviews key elements that shape its specificity and constitute the shared ground of its research community: object of study, place within academia, denomination, historical milestones and key approaches. This review elicits the different stages of evolution leading to the field’s current position and its particular interaction with Law. The focus is placed on commonalities as a means to identify distinctive reference points and avenues for further development. A comprehensive categorization of legal texts and the systematic scrutiny of contextual variables are highlighted as pivotal in defining the scope of the discipline and in proposing overarching conceptual and methodological models. Analyzing the applicability of these models and their impact on legal translation quality is considered a priority in order to reinforce interdisciplinary specificity in line with professional needs.

Hans-Heinrkh Vogel, Juridiska översättningar

Babel ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 180-185
Author(s):  
Klaus Rossenbeck
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
Bilingual Dictionaries ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Problems Of Translation ◽  
Main Ideas

This book would certainly become a standard work for the theory and practice of legal translation if it had been written in a more internationally accessible language than Swedish. In this review, the book's main ideas are presented more extensively than would otherwise be necessary so that those readers who do not have a good command of Swedish can form an idea of the work's merits. The book treats, with great competence, the following problems: Linguistic and legal problems connected to international agreements that exist in different authentic versions or in a language that is not that of the parties who are making the agreement; quality control of legal translations, especialy those in Sweden; the translation of general language vocabulary that is found in legal texts; the question of equivalence relationships in the translation of legal terms; the translation of culturally bound vocabulary; translation of names of different courts, authorities and organizations; problems in the translation of designations for different crimes as well as for legal terms with ideological connotations; linguistic limitations within any given language due to incongruities in certain terms that are used not only within the context of national law but also within international law. The book's theoretical commentaries are characterized by balance and are accompanied by a great deal of useful advice for solving practical problems of translation. This reviewer would like to see better bilingual dictionaries that are based on complete and thorough comparative analyses of legal systems and that are of the same type as that which Vogel has carried out using only a limited number of examples.

scholarly journals The problematic of translation of legal texts

2020 ◽  
pp. 66-71
Author(s):  
Natalia Kurchinskaya-Grasso
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Profound Knowledge ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
The One ◽  
General Linguistic

This article explores the translation of legal texts, as it is usually fraught with a variety of challenges of linguistic and extralinguistic nature. The translator must have a strong command of linguistics, translation skills and profound knowledge of national and international criminal-procedural of civil-procedural law.  Focus is made on the one hand on determination of typology of general linguistic and translation problems pertaining to legal documents, and on the other – on identification of peculiarities of these problems depending on qualification of a specialist doing legal translation. The main characteristics of legal texts are viewed from the perspective of applied comparative legal science. Interdisciplinary approach towards research in the area of legal translation is a logical solution for the analysis of emerging problems. The article demonstrates some mistakes in translation of legal terms on the example of English, Polish, and Italian languages. The author comes to the conclusion that for a translator without the background of legal practice it is difficult to do the translation of legal texts; as well as submits a proposal on comprising methodological recommendations.

scholarly journals Homogeneous parts of the sentence in English legal texts as a translation teaching challenge

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-189
Author(s):  
Karine G. Chiknaverova
Keyword(s):  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
English Syntax ◽  
Government Rules

Homogeneous parts of the sentence pose translation challenges in general and in legal translation from English into Russian in particular. These challenges are, primarily, caused by differences between Russian and English syntax and specifics of legal texts. They include phraseological units and idioms; cases of several sets of homogeneous parts of the sentence; phenomena similar to homogeneous parts of the sentence but having a different nature; cases of different collocation and government rules. Lack of research on the corresponding difficulties that students can face, in its turn, causes problems at the language teaching level. The article goes on to analyse each of such cases, challenges they cause and provides preventive measures in the course of teaching.

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