Abstract
Law is a system of rules of conduct that are created by the national legislature in accordance with the legislative procedures and are enforced by the state power. Legal language, as the manifestation of law and the carrier of the legal information, must be accurate and formal. On the ground of the special function of law, words are dedicatedly selected and used within the given field in legal texts. Some unique lexical features of legal language can be found easily to ensure the accuracy and formalness of legal texts, such as the employment of archaic words, the use of loan words and the application of formal words. The contrastive study is conducted from the lexical aspect of the four English versions of Labor Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China, with an attempt to find out the differences in formalness of the law caused by different uses of words in four versions and wish legal translators pay more attention to formality and accuracy of legal words. As for the four versions, one is taken from PKU’s legal academic sector, marked as V1 in the following comparative study. One is translated by Backer & Mckenzie(V2), one of the biggest legal agents in the world, which functions as an introduction of Chinese government’s policies concerning labor contracts to the world. One is taken from the official website the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (NPC), marked as V3. And the other is taken from Shuangcheng Attorneys at Law in association with China Axis Limited, marked as V4 in the following contrastive study.
Highlights
According to America n linguist Martin Joos (1967) the style can be divided into frozen style, formal s tyle, consulta tive style, casual style and intima te style
The translation of legal texts has been discussed in the lexical aspect, attempting to reveal the importance of applying the accurate words in legal translation and the influence of these words on the formality degree of the legal text b y ta king as examples the four English versions of Labor Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China
This paper has demonstrated that law is characterized as formal and serious, and the legal language mus t be accurate and formal
Summary
According to America n linguist Martin Joos (1967) the style can be divided into frozen style, formal s tyle, consulta tive style, casual style and intima te style. V1: The term of “monthly wage” mentioned in this Artic le refers to the employee's average monthly wage for the 12 months prior to the dissolution or termination of his labor contract. V2: For the purposes of this Article, the term “monthly wage” means the Employee’s average monthly wage for the 12 months prior to the termination or ending of his employment contract. The use of formal words is believed to help maintain the normativity and seriousness of legal texts through the translation process. For this purpose, in legal translatio n, “the shortfall” is more often used than “the difference”. V3: A labor contract which is conc luded in accordance with law prior to implementation of this Law and remains valid as of the date this Law goes into effect shall continue to be performed
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