法律文本中译英及策略分析-英语国际商务毕业论文

An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents I 密密 级级 学学 号号 111648 毕毕 业业 设设 计 论计 论 文 文 2015 年 6 月 26 日 北京 An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 院 系 部 院 系 部 外语系外语系 姓姓 名 名 李莉李莉 年年 级 级 1111 级级 专专 业 业 英语 国际商务 英语 国际商务 指 导 教 师 指 导 教 师 樊继英樊继英 教 师 职 称 教 师 职 称 讲师讲师 An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents II 北京石油化工学院北京石油化工学院 学位论文电子版授权使用协议 论文 An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 系本人在北京石油化工学院学习期间创作完成的作品 并已通过论 文答辩 本人系作品的唯一作者 即著作权人 现本人同意将本作品收录于 北京石 油化工学院学位论文全文数据库 本人承诺 已提交的学位论文电子版与印刷 版论文的内容一致 如因不同而引起学术声誉上的损失由本人自负 本人完全同意本作品在校园网上提供论文目录检索 文摘浏览以及全文部分 浏览服务 公开级学位论文全文电子版允许读者在校园网上浏览并下载全文 注 本协议书对于 非公开学位论文 在保密期限过后同样适用 院系名称 外语系 作者签名 李莉 学 号 111648 2015 年 6 月 26 日 An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents I Abstract With the development of economic globalization China gradually has stepped into the international stage Nowadays in the process of connecting with the international world it is of great necessity to let the world realize Chinese Law so C E translation of legal documents is extremely important for China The translation of legal documents not only concerns the rights of citizens but also reflects the current situation of society To make a successful translation of legal documents translators need not merely profound translation skills but legal knowledge as well Due to the distinctive characteristics of legal language it needs some professional principles to define that Many scholars are prone to research E C translation of legal documents instead of C E translation so there is a devoid of C E translation The present study analyzes C E translation of legal documents including some linguistic features of legal English the improvements existing problems and its strategies of legal documents and sums up a set of principles on the skills of C E translation of legal documents Key words C E translation legal document legal language strategies An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents II 摘要摘要 随着经济全球化的发展 我国逐步迈入国际的舞台 在与国际接轨的过程中 让广大的世界人民认识到中国的法律 已有很大的必要性 所以法律文本中译英就 显得尤为重要 法律文本的翻译不仅仅关系到人民的权益 它还可以反映社会的现 状 法律文本翻译的成功 翻译人员不仅需要有较高的翻译水平 也还需具备一定 的法律相关知识 由于法律英语语言的特殊性 所以需要一定的专业原则去规范它 现代学者多数倾向于研究法律翻译英译中 而中译英的翻译研究却较为缺乏 本论 文研究的是法律英语的语言特点 和法律文本的中译英现状进行分析评价 包括目 前法律文本的中译英所取得的进步和存在的一些问题 最后提出相应的原则及翻译 技巧等策略 关键词关键词 中译英 法律文本 法律语言 策略 An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents III Contents Abstract I 摘要摘要 II Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1 1 Background of the study 1 1 2 Significance of the study 1 1 3 Overview of the study 2 Chapter 2 Literature Review 3 2 1 What is legal English and the principles of legal translation 3 2 1 1 What is legal English 3 2 1 2 The principles of Legal translation 3 2 2 Relevant past studies 4 2 3 Summary 6 Chapter 3 Linguistic Features of Legal English 7 3 1 The features of lexicon 7 3 1 1 Common words 7 3 1 2 Jargon 8 3 1 3 Words and phrases from Latin and French 8 3 2 The features of syntax 8 3 2 1 The use of declarative sentence 8 3 2 2 The use of passive voice 9 Chapter 4 Analysis on the C E Translation of Legal Documents 11 4 1 The improvements of C E translation of legal documents 11 4 1 1The concision of C E translation of legal documents 11 4 1 2 Translation of official words in legal documents 12 4 1 3 Legal knowledge of translators 12 4 2 The problems of C E translation of legal documents 13 4 2 1 Inconsistency 13 4 2 2 Omission and amplification 14 An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents IV Chapter 5 The Strategies of C E Translation of Legal Documents 15 5 1 The principles of C E translation of legal documents 15 5 1 1 The principle of accuracy 15 5 1 2 The principle of conciseness 15 5 1 3 The principle of consistency 15 5 1 4 The principle of cultural difference 16 5 2 Conversion in part of speech 16 5 3 Application of modal verbs in C E translation 17 Chapter 6 Conclusion 19 Acknowledgements 21 Reference 20 An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1 Background of the study With the development of economic globalization China gradually has stepped into the international stage and the legal activities have been increased under the legal custody Nowadays rule by law has become one of the advocacy slogans in China so obviously the C E translation of legal documents is vital Our Chinese Law is distinct from Anglo American Legal System and Civil Law and it has the socialism with Chinese characteristics In the process of connecting with the international world it is of great necessity to let the world realize Chinese Law so C E translation of legal documents is extremely important for China Due to the distinctive characteristics of legal language it needs some professional principles to define that Many scholars are prone to research E C translation of legal documents instead of C E translation so there is a devoid of C E translation Besides being influenced by the professional standard of translators in legal documents there still exists a lot of problems It is easy to see the legal translations which do not conform to the rules of legal English characteristics and many unconventional versions of legal translation With the increase of legal activities people have highlighted the importance of law and C E translation has also been improved a lot than before 1 2 Significance of the study In the process of collaboration with other countries there are some bilateral or multilateral treaties negotiated by these countries according to their laws so translating Chinese legal documents is a crucial issue concerning our interest Excellent and precise translation and expressing precise meaning is what we exactly need The present study doing a research on analysis on the C E translation of legal documents both in its improvements and existing problems and its strategies can not only make up for the inadequacies of former studies but also improve some strategies on the skills of C E translation of legal documents An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 2 1 3 Overview of the study This study consists of six chapters Chapter 1 is the introduction part of the study It introduces the background and the significance of the study Chapter 2 is the review of former studies on the C E translation of legal documents and principles which paves a solid foundation Chapter 3 presents features of English legal documents including lexicon and syntax There are 3 aspects in lexicon common words jargon and borrowed words from Latin and French Chapter 4 presents an analysis of the C E translation of legal documents including the concision official words and professional legal knowledge in improvements and inconsistency omission and amplification in problems of C E Translation of Legal Documents Chapter 5 is about strategies of C E translation of legal documents Some principles and methods are summarized Chapter 6 is the conclusion of this paper involving the conclusion and implication of this study An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 3 Chapter 2 Literature Review 2 1 What is legal English and the principles of legal translation 2 1 1 What is legal English Legal English is a special language used in law documents after a long history of judicial practice and has its own features Lei Xi 2002 2 Legal English has a typical formal style and possesses the basic traits of preciseness rigidness and authority Anglo American Legal System countries generally recognized that legal English is the customary language of lawyers judges and legal workers used in common law countries and it includes some specific words phrases or mode of expression Chen Qingbai 1994 711 Xu Yaosong 2002 points out that according to different applied situations legal English can be divided into four classifications 1 the legal English used in judicatory judgments and reports 2 the legal English used in court 3 the legal English used in the legal documents 4 the legal English used in legal negotiation or communication between counsels Owing to the function as the evidence and voucher authorizing legal activities legal documents must have a standard written form The materials in the following thesis are mainly collected from legal English documents Shi Lei 2006 1 Owning to the specificity of legal language which is of great importance to many legal activities in our life even to science economy politics and so on 2 1 2 The principles of Legal translation Xiang Shixu 2006 points out 4 principles in legal translation They are accuracy rigor conventionality and smoothness Accuracy is the top priority in the translation of legal texts Faithfulness to legal content and legal style is the prerequisite of accuracy It is also the duty of the translator to be faithful to the original Stylistic diversity and creativity are usually not encouraged unless it enhances clarity and effect He also said in order for strictness the translator should also keep the style of objectivity in legal text when he she translates not only from Chinese to English but from English to Chinese Conventionality and smoothness are also the significant principles according to Xiang Shixu who believes translators strive to produce parallel texts whose terminology syntax and style correspond as closely as possible To An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 4 achieve smoothness is highly demanding It requires translator s good command of linguistic knowledge as well as legal knowledge The process of translation is not translating words but concepts not forms but meanings Legal translation is a double operation between legal transfer and language transfer Using conventional and standard phrases or sentence patterns will keep the style of the original and make the translation easily understandable and acceptable to the target readers Zhang Xinhong 2006 who is an experienced translator and researcher in legal translation proposed six principles for the legal translation They are accuracy and precision consistency and identity clarity and concision professionalism standardized language and team work Accuracy and precision refers to the exact representation of the meaning of the source text in the target text Consistency and identity means that the same term in the target text should express the same legal concept or thought and the key words in the whole text should be consistent Clarity and concision are both required to facilitate the readers of the target text but they should not harm the accuracy and precision of the target text The principle of standardized language which is the stylistic aspect requires the use of normative written language recognized by the official departments Professionalism and team work are actually requirements of the translators and the translating procedure Zhang stated that the core of the principles for legal translation lies on accuracy which is the prerequisite of fidelity 2 2 Relevant previous studies Through the long history of legal translation China has made a lot of progress After the foundation of new China Chinese legal documents have been translated into some other languages Xu Yinan 2009 has found the importance about functional equivalence in legal translation Due to the authoritativeness of legal documents translators tend to be oriented to the functional equivalence As a result the translation can have the same legal force as the original ones so as to ensure that they can be employed in the same context Pang Wenjuan 2012 has founded that legal context have a great impact on legal translation there are 4 functions of legal context 1 Limitation The function of limitation means when one word with different meanings in general language is employed in legal language legal context can limit or narrow the meaning of the word into one specific legal meaning so as to avoid An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 5 possible ambiguity 2 Extension Firstly legal context has the ability to expand or add to the meaning of the word which means legal context will adopt common words with specific legal meanings secondly legal context expands the application range of some of the words 3 Differentiation Words or terms in legal language may also have more than one denotation meaning How to differentiate the meanings of the words or terms in legal texts depends on how to define and understand the legal context 4 Creation The function of creation could be analyzed in two ways firstly the creation of new legal terminology secondly the creation of new legal meaning from old words Though a lot of improvements have been made for these years improper legal translation can be easily seen There are some errors according to WuHuali 2003 they are common errors made by non professionals redundancy in legal translation distortion by abuse of commas and distortion by lack of legal knowledge Zhou Yajuan 2010 has written the strategies of C E legal translation Translation strategies can be roughly classified into foreignization domestication and hybridity from the perspective of postcolonial theories To reach the expected effects of foreignization Zhou Yajuan subdivides the strategy into copy transliteration literal translation and word formation In terms of the translation strategies mentioned above i e free translation substitution conversion omission amplification and generalization one can say for sure that all of them fall within the ambit of domestication Zhou Yajuan introduces two kinds of hybridity translation methods most frequently applied in C E legal translation firstly the hybridity of literal translation and free translation and secondly annotation both in the context and after the context Pang Wenjuan 2012 attempts to introduce the following translation strategies They are grammar compensation paraphrase compensation and compensation by notes Some defaults can be easily seen in legal translation This phenomenon requires an analysis of the coherent relationships between sentences thus to compensating for missing meaning through the methods of adding conjunction words readjusting sentence arrangements and so on In order to avoid under translation or over translation Pang Wenjuan suggests using the method of paraphrasing Notes here means that using the interlinear notes or footnotes or An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 6 endnotes compensate for the missing meaning which could not be fully translated because of different social or cultural background This is an efficient way to guarantee that all the information of the source language is fully illustrated in the target language 2 3 Summary Former studies suggest the conditions of legal translation Based on the analysis of relative literature we know that accuracy and preciseness are the most important things in legal translation virtually they can express the true meaning of legal documents And we have known that the translation should have the same legal force as the original ones so as to ensure that they can be employed in the same context Legal context also has functions to legal translation and the full knowledge of law is indispensable to translation as well Though there are many improvements in Chinese to English legal translation errors and improper translations still exist such as non professionals redundancy distortion by the abuse of commas lack of legal knowledge and so on Studies conducted both in our country and abroad reveal that other countries have a good comprehension to Chinese law and legal translation have already made great progress However my present study analyzes the C E translation of legal documents and strategies which are not mentioned or specific in the former studies An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 7 Chapter 3 Linguistic Features of Legal English 3 1 The features of lexicon 3 1 1 Common words There are a lot of common words in legal English some of them are in their original meanings and some of them are interpreted in legal meanings If we don t know the legal meanings in legal documents big mistakes will be made seriously and will affect the outcome in suits even to the people s life The following examples are a list of the common words with their general meanings and special meanings in legal document Common words Common meanings uncommon meanings accessory n clothing that is worn or carried but not part of your main clothing Someone who helps another person commit a crime bar n a room or establishment where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter the profession of any kind of lawyer in the United States or of a barrister in England Challenge v to invite sb to fight or compete with you in some way to ask for identification Fruits n The ripened reproductive body of a seed plant The consequence of some effort or action Omission n Something that has been omitted inaction Principal n The educator who has executive authority for a school Parties in action Real right Real power exactly right Right in rem An Analysis on the C E Translation and Its Strategies of Legal Documents 8 3 1 2 Jargon In the Oxford Advanced Learner s Dictionary of Current English 1982 617 it defines jargon as language full of technical or special words That is to say words used in special or technical fields by special groups of people if you are not in the groups it will be hard to understand In the legal English legal jargons are used widely for example attainder 被剥 夺财产和公民权 arbitration 仲裁 defendant 被告人 dicta 判决附带意见 easyment 地役权 certiorari 上级法院向下级法院调取案卷复审的 令状 felon 重 罪犯 felony murder 重罪杀人 habitual offender 惯犯 homicide 杀人 罪 Jargon of legal documents can embody the features of legal English and the legal linguistic style 3 1 3 Borrowed Words and phrases Obviously there are so many Latin a