Abstract
The paper discusses potential applications of corpus-based methodologies to legal language studies, the focus being placed on their implications for translation research and translator training. Corpus-based studies have been applied to translation since the 90ties; prior research tended to exclude translations as a nonrepresentative language. However, relatively few current projects concentrate on legal translation specifically. Corpus-based methodologies analyse authentic data and language in use. They help to eliminate the speculative element and to verify research hypotheses on a larger scale. Their major contribution seems to be the possibility to improve the naturalness of translation. They may be applied to analyse the translationese against the non-translated language and, in consequence, to identify interferences from the source language. A substantial deal of research is devoted to the so-called translation universals, that is ‘universal features of translation’ (Baker 1993: 243) independent of specific language pairs, i.e. explicitation; simplification, disambiguation; normalisation or conservatism; leveling-out; and over- and underrepresentation of SL or TL elements, including untypical distribution of collocations. It will be argued that some of these hypotheses require further analysis in the context of legal translation. For example, how does the tendency to disambiguate relate to strategic ambiguities and purposeful flexibility of legal language (vagueness)? Is the tendency of explicitation and sanitation not in conflict with the high accuracy requirement in legal translation? And more generally, how does the untypical distribution of TL elements impact the naturalness of translation? It seems that corpus-based studies is a promising methodology that may open up new perspectives on legal language and translation.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call