On Translation Principles And Methods Of The Legal Terminology From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

As globalization further develops and China further reforms and opens up, there are increasing international communications in various fields. And it is gradually clear that legal exchanges play an important part in dealing with international affairs. As is known to all, legal exchanges cannot successfully be carried out without legal translation. Actually, legal translation is in great need in China recently. Meanwhile, many scholars have paid great attention to the study of legal translation. Among all the aspects of legal translation studies, the legal terminology is a key topic. In fact, we can safely conclude that the legal terminological translation directly affects the quality of legal translation.As a key part of legal vocabulary, the legal terminology greatly generalizes legal phenomena and relevant objects. At the same time, it is one of the greatest challenges and difficulties facing the legal translator, too. In the practice of legal translation, there still exist some problems, such as mistranslation of legal terms, the inconsistency of legal terms. With a view to these issues, the thesis introduces the translation theory of Functional Equivalence to put forward translation principles and methods on the basis of its own features through the method of conceptual analysis.The main idea can be expounded by the following aspects. Firstly, the thesis explores characteristics of the legal terminology from the perspective of etymology, semantics and style, which plays a guiding role in evaluating the acceptance of the legal terminological translation. Secondly, the thesis introduces Nida's functional equivalence and Sarcevic'thoughts concerning legal translation. It also probes into appropriateness and significance of Functional Equivalence in guiding the legal terminological translation. Lastly, in accordance with the theoretical framework, the thesis proposes three translation principles, that is, the principle of equivalence of legal function, the principle of the equivalence of content, and the principle of equivalence of style. In light of the analysis of terminological incongruency advocated by Sarcevic, the thesis points out such four categories of equivalence as exact equivalence, near equivalence, partial equivalence and non-equivalence through conceptual analysis. Different translation methods are suggested in different degrees of equivalence under the guidance line of translation principles. Specifically speaking, literal translation is preferred under the condition of exact equivalence; the use of functional equivalent is more suitable under the condition of near equivalence; amplification under the condition of partial equivalence; literal translation, explanation and transliteration under the condition of non-equivalence. No matter which translation methods are adopted, the ultimate purpose is to accurately reproduce the information content embodied in the legal terminology in order to guarantee the same legal function or effect.