The problem of equivalence in translating legal texts

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandro Paolucci
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Law ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Central Topic ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
General Translation

AbstractAlthough it is a subject of continuous debate and a frequent source of controversy, the concept of equivalence remains a central topic in translation studies. 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. After briefly presenting equivalence issues in general translation, this article examines the problem of equivalence in legal texts. It stresses the relevance of terminological equivalence, including as a translation process that may compete with others within the same text.

Vertalen Als Revisie

1998 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 109-115
Author(s):  
Hella Breedveld
Keyword(s):  
Writing Process ◽  
Language Translation ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Cognitive Activities

The study of translation processes tends to focus on the local processes involved in finding translations for words or expressions in the source text. In order to find out which processes are involved in the production of a target text based on an existing source text in another language, translation studies may profit from models that have been developed in research on the writing process. Certain categories of cognitive activities found in research on the writing process can be used in the analysis of think-aloud protocols of the translation process. Especially the notion of revising, as developed in writing research, can help to understand how translators proceed in order to produce a good text in a target language.

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.

scholarly journals Exploring Pharmacy Students’ Techniques in Translating Pharmaceutical Texts from English into Bahasa Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
Ahmad Kailani ◽  
Dina Rafidiyah
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Considerable Research ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Translation Methodology ◽  
Bahasa Indonesia

Translating an L1 (source text) into a target language would be a daunting task and time-consuming work for students who are non-native speakers. It might be more challenging when the L1 text is a discipline specific text. Many words and specific terms are difficult to translate, and often unintended meanings emerge during this translation process. Although there has been considerable research on the translation studies, there has been still little study on how translators cope with the challenges. To fill this void, this case study is aimed to describe techniques employed by students majoring pharmacy in translating direction for use texts from English into Bahasa Indonesia. Adopting Vinay’s and Darbelnet’s (1996) translation methodology, this research is aimed to describe the translation process that students already undertook in order to produce texts that appropriately work in a particular social context. There are four drug brochures taken as samples of analysis. These texts are students’ assignment for the topic of translation.  This is a group work and part of the whole assessment. The study provides detailed and specific examples of how students tackle the challenges of translating discipline specific texts into equivalent languages that are socio-culturally and linguistically acceptable. HIGHLIGHTS: Translating a text is not simply to transfer the meaning of source text into the target text, but it requires the translator to have sufficient discipline specific knowledge. The challenges and problems faced by translators would be different from one another since each discipline specific text requires different strategies.

scholarly journals Perbedaan Pola Pikir Orang Indonesia dan Orang Prancis melalui Karya Terjemahan

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-25
Author(s):  
Sajarwa Sajarwa
Keyword(s):  
French Literature ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Study Results ◽  
French People ◽  
The Difference

Transfer of message in the translation process is always characterized by the difference of culture in the source language and the target language. Language, as a part of culture, affects the speaker mind including translator. Text of French literature (as source text, ST) and text of Indonesian literature (as target text, TT) could be an example of difference in mindset of French people as writer of French literature and Indonesian people as translator. The study results showed the differences in the mindset throught analyzes of (i) Active-Passive Construction of French pronoun on and passive di-, (ii) dominantly pronoun as means of topics continuity in French and repetition in Indonesian, and (iii) the difference ofinformational arrangement looked in impersonal construction of French with pattern of IL+IB and IB+IL in Indonesian.

scholarly journals The Application of Translation Strategies to Cope With Equivalence Problems in Translating Texts

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Dhini Aulia
Keyword(s):  
Equivalence Problem ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Specific Concept ◽  
Equivalence Problems

Translation is a process to render the meaning from the source text into the target text. A translator, however, will find some problems during translation process. Equivalence is the case which often appears (i.e. culture specific concept, the source-language concept is not lexicalized in the target language, source-language word is semantically complex, etc). To cope with equivalnce problems in translation process, some experts suggest some strategies which can be applied in doing translation. Some strategies are transference, naturalization, cultural equivalent, etc. The strategies which often appears in the example texts in this paper are transference, naturalization, descriptive equivalent, couplet and  through-translation. It is recomended that translator apply the strategies if only there is no equivalence problem in target language. 

scholarly journals Translation as Deconstruction: Infidelity in the Translation Process

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Dominador L. Pagliawan
Keyword(s):  
Actual Practice ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Practice

Over the years, translation practice has constantly faced numerous challenges and demands. Among these is the necessity for the translator to stay faithful to the source text in transporting meanings to the target language. In actual practice, though, fidelity in translation proves rather remote, even close to impossible. Try as they do, translators fail to achieve precision in their translation tasks. Yet the translation practice remains needful and relevant. Viewing this seeming failure from the deconstructive critical lens in an attempt to salvage translation, this paper theorized and found out that the latter is rightly a form of deconstruction rather than a product of infidelity. This shows in various translation procedures which, when subjected to closer scrutiny, eventually manifest their deconstructive nature. This study, then, contributes insights into the increasing corpus of theories that govern the translation process. 

scholarly journals AN INTEGRATED MODEL FOR TRANSLATING LEGAL TEXTS

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Alenka Kocbek
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Law ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Skopos Theory ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Legal Communication

The paper proposes a model for translating legal texts which is intended to direct the translation process through a series of stages to the final product—a skopos-oriented target text in which the potential pitfalls resulting from translating between different legal languages and systems have been considered. The model unites different translation stances (Snell-Hornby’s integrated approach, the functionalist views with the skopos theory and the concept of cultureme, as well as Chesterman’s theory of memes) with the findings of comparative law regarding differences between legal systems and their impact on legal languages. It consists of ten stages, each addressing one of the specific linguistic and extralinguistic aspects of legal text types. When translating legal texts, a very specific situation may arise with respect to the cultural embeddedness of the target text, since memes of different legal cultures may co-exist on its various levels. This is especially the case when the parties involved in legal communication occurring through translation decide to use a third language as a lingua franca, which may lack any direct correlation with the legal culture(s) underlying such communication.

scholarly journals Hur skapas en rebelltjej på svenska?

Barnboken ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari Mossberg
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Good Night ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Descriptive Translation Studies ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Informative Component

What’s a Rebel Girl in Swedish? On the Translation of Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls Abstract: This article investigates the translation of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women, a children’s book written and published by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo in 2016. Within the framework of Gideon Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies and Katharina Reiss’ text typology, the study focuses on the Swedish translation Godnattsagor för rebelltjejer: 100 berättelser om fantastiska kvinnor from 2017, including comparisons with the Danish, French, and Norwegian translations, with a view to discover the differences between the text versions. Analysis shows that the Swedish translation is less source-text dependent than the other translations, downplaying the fairytalization of the stories and tending to strengthen the informative component of the text. Poetic language and metaphors are less apparent in the Swedish translation, while hedging, explicitation as well as specification of time, place and chronology contribute to making the text more factual. A further finding is that more adult language is used in the Swedish translation. The article ends by summarizing the main findings and discussing a few explanations for the adaptation of the Swedish translation with regard to its target language context.

scholarly journals SKOPOS THEORY: A PRACTICAL APPROACH IN THE TRANSLATION PROCESS

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ika Kana Trisnawati
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Specific Guideline ◽  
Skopos Theory

Numerous criticisms have been addressed toward the application of Skopos theory within translation studies. Issues such as vague concepts of translation, ‘dethroning’ the source text, oversimplification and inapplicability to achieve equivalence for literary and religious texts are some of many critiques for Skopos theory. In addition, from a student’s perspective, it is argued that there is no specific guideline to carry out the theory. However, here, I would like to present my perspective as a student practicing translation as well as a brief overview of Skopos theory, its criticisms as well as its usefulness in actual implementation.

From ‘Is’ to ‘Ought’

Target ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Chesterman
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Translation Product ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Professional Norms ◽  
Target Source ◽  
General Translation

Abstract Translation studies need to cater for both description and evaluation. This can be achieved via the study of translation norms. The norms governing translation are: (a) professional norms concerning the translation process (= norms of accountability, communication and target-source relation); and (b) expectancy norms concerning the form of the translation product, based on the expectations of the prospective readership. While general translation laws account for the behaviour of translators in general, normative laws describe the translation behaviour of a subset of translators, namely, competent professionals, who establish the norms. Normative laws originate in rational, normdirected strategies which are observed to be used by professionals. These laws are empirical, spatio-temporally falsifiable, probabilistic, predictive and explanatory.

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