On the Translation of Legal English Terms

By

Gao Yuanhui

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of English

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

April 10, 2017

Acknowledgments

First, I want to thank my mentor Mr. Zhang Jinwei. During the research phase of the thesis, he generously helped me to collect the information and gave me some useful suggestions. He took time out of busy teaching work to revise my thesis. Without his help, there would be no such thesis. Because my professional knowledge level is limited, it is not an easy thing to finish this thesis, I am more grateful to my mentor for helping me at every stage of the thesis. At the same time, I also thank my friends for giving me a lot of suggestions during my research. It is their help that helped me learn much of valuable knowledge.

 Translation of Legal English Terms

Gao Yuanhui

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: Under the background of rapid economic globalization, the economic development of each country is rapid, and the relations between different countries are getting closer and closer. The trade is increasing, and the ensuing disputes are increasing. As a result, it has greatly increased the demand for legal and English professionals. Translation of legal English is becoming more and more important. This paper first introduces the lexical and stylistic features of legal English, and then expounds the features of legal English technical terms. Finally, it summarizes the principles and methods of technical terms. By analyzing the principles and methods of translation, the purpose is to achieve the translation of source language and target language equivalence. However, by legal translators’ professional level, the quality of legal documents in our country is not optimistic. Therefore, in the present, the translation of legal English terms has a very positive theoretical and practical significance.

Key words: legal English; technical term; translation principle; translation method

摘要：在经济全球化迅速加快的背景下，各国经济快速发展，国家之间的联系越来越密切。贸易活动在不断增加，随之而来的争端也在增加。因此，法律与英语复合型人才的需求也在日益增加，法律英语翻译变得越来越重要。本篇文章首先介绍了法律英语的词汇和文体特征，进而阐述了法律英语术语的特点，最后总结了术语翻译的原则和方法。通过分析翻译原则和方法，力求达到源语和目的语之间翻译的对等。但是受法律翻译人员专业水平的影响，我国法律文件的翻译质量不容乐观。因此，在当下，对法律英语术语的翻译进行相关研究，有了十分积极的理论与实践意义。

关键词：法律英语；专业术语；翻译原则；翻译方法

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………...1

2. Lexical features of legal English……………………………….…………………...2

3. Stylistic features of legal English…………………………………………………...3

4. Features of legal English terms……………………………………………………..4

4.1 The specialization and preciseness of legal English terms……………………4

4.2 The unicity of legal English terms.....................................................................5

4.3 The opposite meaning of legal English terms…………………………………5

4.4 Relative fuzziness of word meaning…………………………………………..5

4.5 Exclusiveness of legal English terms………………………………………….6

5. Principles and methods of translation of legal English terms…………………........6

5.1 Translation principles………………………………………………………….6

5.1.1 Principle of accuracy…………………………………………………….7

5.1.2 Principle of coherence…………………………………………………...8

5.1.3 Principle of preciseness………………………………………………….8

5.1.4 Principle of language standardization…………………………………..9

5.2 Translation methods………………………………………………………….10

5.2.1 Basic methods………………………………………………………….10

5.2.2 Special translation methods……………………………………………10

5.2.3 Some skills of translation of legal English terms………………………11

5.2.4 Footnote, Post explanation and Pre-modification……………………...12

6. The application of legal English terms in real life ……..…………………………13

7. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………14

References……………………………………………………………………………16

1. Introduction

Legal English translation is an important third-class branch of translation studies. As an important part of translation, legal English translation has a long history. In particular, in recent years, the rising legal level in China and the promotion of global legal and cultural exchanges have led to a large number of legal documents translated into Chinese. China's accession to the WTO brings the country into the overall environment of globalization. Since China became more and more connected with the world, China has learned more and more things from the world, which includes learning from their legal systems, in order to participate in the international political and economic activities. Therefore, a large number of foreign laws are translated into Chinese, and legal translation becomes ever more important.

The law is the sum of the code of conduct that embodies the will of the ruling class, which is formulated or endorsed by the state and guaranteed by the state. Legal English, like other social dialects, is a language function variant formed by people in the long term use according to the social and cultural environment and the purpose of communication, communicative object and so on, and has its own unique purpose and law. The particularity of the legal profession determines that legal English has complex terms and syntactic structures.

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