Terminological definition of terminological by medical. Inherent problems of legal translation theoretical aspects, the. After briefly presenting equivalence issues in general translation, this article examines the problem of equivalence in legal texts. Legal translation is the translation of texts within the field of law. This notion of sameness is often understood as an equivalence relation between the source and target texts. Problems of terminological and conceptual equivalence in. The solution to any translation problem is obviously far beyond the mere linear transposition of a source text into a target language and, particularly when translating legal texts, specialists in comparative law and legal translators continuously strive to find the most equivalent term or concept in the target language. In legal translation, a problem arises from the very beginning if the translator aims at finding the exact terminological equivalent.
This equivalence relation is generally considered the most salient feature of a quality translation. Inherent problems of legal translation theoretical aspects. The english language draws a terminological distinction which does not exist in every language between translating a written text and interpreting oral or signed communication between users of different languages. Equivalence can be said to be the central issue in translation although its definition, relevance, and applicability within the field of translation theory have caused heated controversy, and many different theories of the concept of equivalence have been elaborated within this field in the past fifty years. The aim of this paper is to evidence the difficulties involved in researching and finding out terminological and conceptual equivalence as regards procedural rules and legal institutes relevant to the english system as compared to the italian system. It is a wellknown fact that legal translation as such poses many problems due to the differences in legal systems from one country to another. The focus in translation studies is clearly on text, whereas in terminology studies it has been on system. It is the method whereby the translators purpose is not to give a literal, wordforword rendition but to transfer the meaning of the text as would be best expressed in the words of the receptor native language. It is a constitutive feature and the guiding principle of translation. The translation journal is in an online journal for translators and interpreters and friends of the industry. So translation can be a process of transferring the message of the source text into a target text. Author of bilingual and plurilingual legal dictionaries, of comprehensive studies on legal lexicography and legal translation theories, susan sarcevic addresses the concept of terminological incongruency in legal language, in one of her latest books, new approach to legal translation. Introduction the present volume highlights a selection of contributions to the topic of lsp translation scenarios within the marie curie conference series mutra.
The attribution of an equivalence to a legal term, for which no comparable concept exists in another legal system, can be the cause of ambiguities, confusion and all types of miscomprehension due to the effect the term in question produces in the reader of the translated text. Translation article entitled the problem of terminological equivalence in international maritime law this site uses cookies. These are 1 legal conceptual issues and the question of equivalence and nonequivalence of legal concepts in translation. The terms dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, coined by eugene nida, are associated with two dissimilar translation approaches that are employed to achieve different levels of literalness between the source text and the target text, as evidenced in biblical translation the two have been understood basically, with dynamic equivalence as senseforsense translation translating the. The legal translator should be highly qualified and have an excellent command of both languages in addition to special knowledge and expertise in legal. Difficulties of achieving terminological equivalence in legal.
The articles are written by translators, interpreters and. What is more, the problems posed by terminological incongruity and, as a consequence, the. This collection of 14 articles by experts from different backgrounds deals with linguistic problems and technical aspects of terminology. Equivalence will always be an important part of human translation as long as the latter exists. We are an open access, academic journal which publishes on an annual basis. The problem of terminological equivalence in international maritime law.
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a sourcelanguage text by means of an equivalent targetlanguage text. Ideally, a translation brief should provide such details. The translator uses the functional equivalence when translating legal terms from. Thus legal translation is a type of specialist or technical translation. These translation models will be presented more thoroughly in section 1. Difficulties in translating legal terms berenice walther thesis m. The problem of equivalence in translating legal texts. The gradual erosion of the notion of equivalence in translation studies there are other reasons why the notion of equivalence is no longer as appealing as it used to be reasons not connected to the lack of rigour in defining it nor to whether or not it is valid in its own right. According to the dictionary, terminology is a vocabulary associated with a.
The sl and the tl make different distinction in meaning 5. Translation article entitled equivalence in translation. Equivalence, indeed, is a constitutive feature and the guiding principle of translation. Pdf equivalence has been a critical issue in translation, as well as in legal translation. A mong the problems posed by legal translation, that of terminological equivalence is one of keen current interest. You cant use just any language translation software for legal documentsthere needs to be a high standard of security. Pdf terminological equivalence in legal translation. Covering fundamental issues such as equivalence in legal translation, approaches to legal translation and the interaction between judicial interpretation and legal translation, the authors offer contributions from philosophical, rhetorical, terminological and lexicographical perspectives.
A problem in legal translation therefore arises at the outset if a translator aims at. Then, it intends to identify the problems that occur when dealing with these. These strategies will help the translator to deal with the problems non equivalence at word level in the comic translation, these strategies are also used in to make the result of translation not only enjoyable but also meaningful for the readers. Legal translation difficulties of legal translation. As law is a culturedependent subject field, legal translation is not necessarily linguistically transparent. It is usually required when documents like birth death certificates, immigration papers, college transcripts, police clearances, marriage licenses, divorce decrees and the like are submitted in foreign. Legal translation techniques and proposed solutions for certain problems the. Techniques for coping with the untranslatability of legal terms between arabic and english. The importance of terminology in translation studies. By proposing a novel methodology to assign the equivalents of specialized verbs, this research aims at defining validation criteria for this kind of predicative units, so as to contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of terminological equivalence as well as to the development of multilingual terminography in general, and to the. The sl concept isnot lexicalized the target language tl 3. The level of equivalence of the terms depends on the extent of relatedness of the legal systems and not on. As catford points out, the central problem of translation practice is that of finding target language equivalents.
Roman jakobson, eugene nida and anton popovic have contributed to the theory of equivalence. As catford points out, the central problem of translation practice is. The problem of terminological equivalence in international. Terminological equivalence is one main issue in translation. The translation of legal texts cannot be done without regarding legalcultural concepts and differences between legal systems. Read terminological equivalence in legal translation. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. To be more specific, equivalence is one of the most important considerations of professional translation agents and freelance translation service experts alike when it comes to localizing a website or straightforwardly translating textual material. Problems of equivalence the principle that a translation should have an equivalence relation with the source language text is problematic. Another difficulty in legal translation unlike other forms of translation is certification. It is not so much a problem when translating from english into a language with one standard variety, such as polish, but vice versa, i.
Linguistic equivalence in translation one hour translation. In the present presentation we will discuss the problem of non equivalence but first we will understand what is equivalence and the difference with non equivalence which is one of the most common problems in translation, when it happens and what are the most common issues with non equivalence. Terminological equivalence and translation reiner arntz. It stresses the relevance of terminological equivalence, including as a translation process that may compete with others within the same text. Legal translation techniques and proposed solutions for certain. The resulting prototype offers a number of novel solutions, including a division into subdictionaries assigned to different problem complexes in translation, a classification of headwords according to their relations of equivalence with parallel institutions in the secondary legal. Some problem solving strategies this site uses cookies. Persons speaking the same language, but belonging to different legal systems, can have greater. At pairaphrase, we understand the sensitive nature of translating a legal document. The source language sl word is semantically complex 4. Terminological challenges in the translation of documentaries. Intransparency in translation can be avoided somewhat by use of latin legal terminology, where possible. Equivalence has been a critical issue in translation, as well as in legal translation. The importance of terminology in translation studies december 21, 2015 12.
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