A Methodological Approach to Legal and Administrative Translation

Abstract

"Corpus linguistics represents, in the study of legal language, a method with various practical manifestations with the role of allowing a thorough analysis of the particularities of specialized legal discourse. The present work represents a theoretical and practical study that approaches from an interdisciplinary perspective the connection between corpus analysis and legal discourse, emphasizing concrete techniques for using the linguistic mechanisms used in corpus linguistics. The constitution and selection of a corpus for the purpose of pragmatic analysis requires a documentation effort on the part of researchers concerned with the thorough research of the legal discourse, using a series of established as well as innovative methods, as well as the computer programs and databases used to collect the analyzed data. At the same time, the socio-pragmatic framework in which the legal discourse is drawn up and captured has an important influence on the applicable legal norms, but also on the drafting methods of legal documents. Therefore, the analysis of the corpus represents an important step in the deciphering of legal texts both at the national and at the European level, the particular character of the legal discourse taking shape also through the linguistic mechanisms characteristic of this type of discourse, approaching a multidisciplinary plan."