Abstract
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.
Highlights
The translation model proposed in this paper combines different translation approaches with the findings of comparative law regarding the differences between legal systems and their impact on legal languages and substantiates them with the results of a corpus study of commercial contracts in English, Slovene and German
The cultureme as a socio-cultural category is realised through realisational and regulatory behaviouremes When observing the culturemes in different cultural settings, differences are established with respect to all behavioureme categories, the most relevant ones in the case of legal texts, are those occurring on the verbal and the regulatory level, i.e. the governing legal system which provides the communicative framework to the contract
The second scenario leading to potential pitfalls implies translating between legal systems which are relatively related (e.g. German and Slovene, both belonging to the Civil Law), but using a lingua franca bound to a legal system which may be fundamentally unrelated to the legal systems involved, as is often the case with English used as lingua franca
Summary
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. 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
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