The Characteristic and Translation of The Legal Terminology of English and Chinese 英语论文.doc

the characteristic and translation of the legal terminology of english and chineseabstractcomparing with other basic words and the non- basic words, the legal language has its own specialized characteristic. the translation of legal terminology is one of the difficulties encountered by law translators，for legal translation requires equivalence both in linguistic function and in legal function，but the absence of exact equivalents is not uncommon and the translator is often troubled with near equivalence, partial equivalence and non-equivalence. this article looks into the absence of exact equivalents in legal terminology translation from english to chinese. in addition, it illustrates some ways, such as the use of functional equivalent, lexical expansion, paraphrase, neutral term，borrowing and neologism, to deal with terminology translation. key words: translation; legal terminology 英汉法律术语的特点与翻译摘 要法律专业术语与其他基本词和非基本词相比较，有其自身的专业特点。法律术语的翻译是法律翻译中的难点，因为翻法律术语时，译者面临这样一个问题：一方面，法律翻译要求语言功能上的对等和法律功能的对等，另一方面，翻译中又经常没有确切对等词，面对的是接近对等、部分对等和不对等这几种情况。本文探讨了法律术语英译中时这种不完全对等的现象，并提出了翻译法律术语的一些方法：使用功能对等词、扩充词义、释义、使用非法律专业用语的中性词、译借或创造新词等。关键词： 翻译; 法律术语contentsabstract 1中文摘要 2contents 31. introduction 41.1 research background 41.2 motivations and objectives 42. the characteristic of the legal terminology of the english and chinese2.1 introduction52.2 the characteristic of the legal terminology53. the method of the legal terminology translation63.1 using functional equivalents83.2 lexical expansion93.3 paraphrase93.4 neologism114. conclusion 11bibliography111. introduction1.1 research backgroundsince the reform and opening up, chinese foreign exchanges have been considerably expanded, and the legal structure in our country has been improved at an amazing speed. especially after chinese entry to the world trade organization, the discussion on the english-chinese translation of the legal documents of wto entries makes the legal translation a social focus. comparing with other professional languages, the legal language has its own distinguished characteristics, so the study of legal translation should be based upon its legal language 1.1.2 motivations and objectives first, the law technical expression concept of the words and expressions which specially uses for some profession calls professional terminology 2. the scope of professional terminology is very broad and it even includes the terminology of various sciences. the scientific terminology is the center nomenclature of the professional terminology; it represents an aspect concept of the science and technology. with the aid of these scientific terminologies, people who grasp the related knowledge can impel the academic development. it is the same with other professions, the law language also has its own profession words and expressions which itself specially uses. for example：tort（侵权），reprieve（缓期执行），concurrent negligence（共同过失），burden of proof（举证责任）and so on. as a result of the dignity of the legal work, it enables the specialization. in the legal work, we should use the scientific terminology precisely and clearly. 2. the characteristic of the legal terminology of the english and chinese2.1 introduction comparing with other basic words and the non- basic words, the law technical expression and the legal language used in the national language has its own specialized characteristic. a scholar once said that legal processes are directly affected by language both in areas where the law has explicit rules for governing language behavior and in other areas where the rules are either implicit or not be found at all. 2.2 the character of the legal terminology first, one terminology only expresses one concept and the special concept only uses the professional terminology to express. that is to say, the prominent characteristic of all scientific terminology is the sole and fixed word meaning. in this point, the legal terminology of english and chinese is identical. therefore, in the concrete utilization process, all people must have the identical explanation in any situation. for example: in english, negligence (过失)cannot be replaced by failure in murder.second, the corresponding of the words refer to the words and expressions mutually contradiction, mutually opposition, for example, general, with, special, above, with, under and so on. in the national language, this kind of significance is opposition or corresponding word, which belongs to the antonym 3. we call it corresponding words. in legal language, english and chinese have the uniformity 4. for example, e.g. 1 part a（甲方）-part b（乙方） e.g. 2 right （权利）-obligation （义务） e.g. 3 principal criminal（主犯）-accessorial criminal（从犯） third, the variability of the law technical expression which refers to the use of some terminology is different with the national language.in the legal language, the terminology expression “did not take” cannot violate the verb phrase, but it has the legal concept of the noun function, which frequently acts as the subject or the object in the sentence not the predicate. in english this kind of phenomenon also exists, but far less than in chinese. for example, in the terminology word of “(证据不足) not proven” , proven is the past participle which transforms by verb prove and has the adjective the function, the terminology word of “(证据不足) not proven” means “not confirmation”. in english, proven only can do as the predicate and the attribute. but in the legal language, its noun has been allowed to make the subject or the object in the sentence. for example, another difference is that in scottish criminal law a third verdict of not proven is possible intermediate between guilty and not guilty. it is equivalent to an acquittal. (另一个不同之处是，在苏格兰刑法中，在有罪和无罪裁决之间还存在一类“证据不足”的裁决，它相当于宣告无罪.) fourth, in english and chinese law technical expression, there are massive kinds of synonymous word and it is its another major characteristic. for example, car (小汽车), bus (汽车), truck (卡车), train (火车) and so on. this belongs to this kind of synonymous words. vehicle （车辆）, plane, ship and so on also belongs to this kind of synonymous words of transportation (交通工具) 5. 3. the method of the legal terminology translation the person who is engaged in the translation work is able to realize all sorts of difficulties. in order to learn the legal text, we must solve the terminology translation problem. the legal terminology easily makes the person to associate jargon. jargon is the words and expressions which are specially used for some professional work. jargon is using special words and expressions for various professional work and meets these profession- al work need, but the law specialized is same with the other professional work and also has the professional words. for example, specific performance (强制执行), contempt of court (藐视法庭), power of attorney (委托书) and so on. we have called the professional words with its legal specialized characteristic and expressions 5. .before discussing the english and chinese legal terminology translation, we must carry on the classification of the legal translation. the legal translation may divide into two kinds: authoritative translation and non-authoritative. to the terminology, the quality of the authoritative translation must be higher than the non-authoritative translation. because the authoritative translation requests a law translator to make the translation and the original text into the same level legal effect and guarantee their consistent understanding and the utilization6: 71-73 therefore, authoritative legal translation not only requests language function coordination but also requests coordination of the legal function. the legal function coordinated is the source language and translated language has the same role and effect which plays in the law. thus, the translated language was able to accurately express the primitive implication, and reduce the lost of translation meaning as far as possible. but, its not easy to achieve this point, because nobody could use another language completely to convey the idea in a text several hundred years law ago. in the political and the literature, these languages always have been brought the cultural trace, but these traces are impossible to obtain the integrity of the transmission 7: 17.thus it may be known, in the english and chinese legal terminology translation processing which lacks the accurate coordinated words is not rare. for example, we cannot translate client into当事人/契约当事人which can be translated into “contracting parties” rather than” contracting parties”. in the law dictionary, client can be define as a person who employs an attorney to appear in court, give advice, craft a written instrument or do any other things which constitutes the practice of law。therefore，“client” means “律师的当事人（或委托人）”. another example,英汉法律词汇translated the word of statutory rape into“强奸幼女”； but英汉国际政治经济法律词汇translated it into“奸污少女构成的强奸罪”。in order to understand it clearly, we should look into two authoritative law dictionaries. rape.under modern statutes which often materially change the common-law definition and create an offense commonly known as statutory rape, where the offense consists in having sexual intercourse with a female under statutory age, the offense may be either with or without the females consent 5. rape.a variation of this crime is statutory rape, which is sexual intercourse without force by a male with a female who is under the age specified by state law. this age, called the age of consent, varies in different states from 10 to 18 years of age 5. obviously, when translating terminology words, translator will be faced with two kinds of questions. on the one hand, the legal translation requests language function coordinated; on the other hand, in the procession of the translation, the terminology does not have the accurate coordinated words. then, the translator should resolve this kind of contradiction; they should make up the english and chinese legal terminology uniformity and guarantee the quality of terminology translation.the special status and the legal language are based on the rigorous character of the legal text, generally the legal translation emphasis on the original text faithfulness. if it does not have the accurate words in chinese, the translator may nimbly attempt to use the function coordinated words.3.1.using functional equivalentsaccording to sarcevics definition, “the function coordinated word refers to the translated language legal framework have the same function with the source language legal framework.” 6: 278-279 function coordinated words usually be used in lacking inaccurate coordinated words. if lacking inaccurate coordinated words, which words can be chosen to instead the function coordinated words?for instance, all the common dictionary translate jail and prison into “监狱”, which is not different, but some dictionaries have made discrimination to them. “牛津高阶英汉双解词典” explains jail as goal, and translates the goal into 监狱. it explains the prison as 监狱；看守所” according to the dictionary of practical law：jail. a building used for the confinement of individuals awaiting trial， or who have been convicted of minor offenses. the term prison is sometimes used interchangeably with jail， but prison is usually the place where only those with long-term sentences are confined. according to this, the function of the coordinated word of jail and the prison is different. jail approaches chinese “看守所；拘留所”, the coordinated word of the prison should be “the jail” 8.3.2 lexical expansionsometimes, because the essential characteristic of some chinese coordinated words and the essential characteristic of the english source terminology are different, this chinese coordinated word cannot be used to translate the source terminology, and then the translator may use the expansion word meaning to make up the inconsistent between the terminologies.3.3 paraphraseif lack the accurate coordinated words, the explanation is a very effective method to solute it, which using the neutral language to express the intended implication of the source language. when the translator was using the explanation method, the translator must be specially grasps the first material as much as possible specially and understands the meaning of the source terminology correctly.according to the dictionary yellow dog contract means 黄狗合同, which causes chinese reader difficult to understand, because in the chinese law system, people do not have the concept of “the yellow dog contract”, moreover, from the word “the yellow dog contract” people also unable to guess the meaning correctly，whose true meaning is 不准雇员进入工会的合同 5。 therefore although it is translated into chinese, it is also difficult to understand that some dictionaries translate this terminology nimbly into do not permit (employee) to participate the trade union contract, this translation obviously better than the former. there many other examples:1.mafia: 黑手党 a secret society that originated in italy in the 1860s. now the mafia is wide spreading, and is focused on power and profit. 19世纪60年代起源于意大利的秘密团体。现在黑手党势力广为分布，专门从事扩张势力、牟取钱财。2.mail fraud：邮政诈骗 the using of the mail system to defraud the public. 利用邮政系统诈骗公众的行为。3.money laundering：洗钱 the act of concealing the source of funds for the purpose of tax evasion and fraud. 为达到逃税和欺骗的目的而隐瞒资金来源的行为.4.mule：挟带毒品者，贩运私货的人 a person used to transport drugs or contraband from one place to another. 被用来从一地到另一地运送毒品或违禁品的人。5.pickpocket：扒手 a thief who is skilled in stealing items from other peoples pockets. 擅于从别人口袋里偷取物品的窃贼。6.pilice brutality：警察暴力 the act of using excessive physical force by police or other law enforcement officers. 警察或其他执法人员过多使用体罚的行为。7.prison break： 越狱an escape from prison involving violence by one or more prisoners. 一个或多个囚犯使用暴力从监狱逃跑。8.statutory rape：法定强奸罪 sexual intercourse with a female who has consented, but who is legally incapable of consent because she is underage. 与未成年女子发生的性行为，虽经其本人同意，但法律规定其尚未成年，不具备表达同意意愿的能力。9 .suicide pact：自杀合约 an agreement between two or more persons to commit suicide together. 一起自杀的两者或多者之间的协定。10.white-collar crime：白领犯罪crimes committed by persons in businesses including expense-account padding, stealing office supplies, price-fixing, product fraud, etc. 公司职员的犯罪，包括虚报开支、偷盗办公用品、私定价格、产品欺诈等。11.arson： 纵火 the crime of intentionally destroying property by the use of fire. 故意放火毁坏财产的犯罪。12.assassin：暗杀 a murderer, a person who sets out to kill someone, esp. a prominent person. 谋杀者。密谋杀害他人，特别是一位杰出人物的凶手。13.bail：保释金 money that is deposited with a court in order to secure the release of a defendant while awaiting trial. 存放在法庭的一定数量的保证金，以使被告在候审期间获得释放。 from above examples, we can