A Study Of Translators' Subjectivity In Legislative Translation From An Adaptation-theoretic Perspective

Verschueren expounds that language use is a process of continuous making of linguistic choices. This opinion holds true for translation, since translation, in essence, counts as one form of language in actual use. More straightforwardly, the act of translation consists of the continuous making of choices. In view of the similarity and relationship between pragmatics and translation, this thesis conducts a systematic study of manifestation of legal translators'subjectivity in decision-making when translating Chinese legislative texts into English. By combining Verschueren's Theory of Linguistic Adaptation and Hu's Approach to translation as Adaptation and Selection, the author explores the manifestation and realization of translators'subjectivity in the translation of Chinese legislative texts into English.The research suggests that legal translator's subjectivity plays an active and central role in translating legislative texts from two levels: syntactic and semantic level. At syntactic level, the following four aspects are elaborated: deletion, addition, use of passive voice for active voice and variation of sentence patterns. At semantic level, the following four aspects are expounded: technical terms, archaic words, formal words and avoidance of semantic repetition. In translation, translators display their adaptation and selection as to choices of words, arrangements of sentence structures and so on with creativity involved. However, such creativity is subject to certain conditions and constraints. Legal translators have to decide when, where and how to make decisions.Through comparison between two English versions of Insurance Law of the People's Republic of China and Securities Law of the People's Republic of China, and analysis of data from various legislative texts, the study reveals that translators should be aware of the translation strategies and other factors involved. Under the guidance of their subjectivity, they can make corresponding choices consciously and actively.The whole thesis is divided into five parts. The first part introduces the background of the research. The second part is literary review on history of legal translation and former research on translators'subjectivity. The third part is the theoretical framework based on Verschueren's Theory of Linguistic Adaptation and Hu's Approach to translation as Adaptation and Selection. The forth part presents some specific cases in line with the framework of Adaptation and Selection through analysis of two versions of Insurance Law of Republic of China, Securities Law of the People's Republic of China and other cases from legislative texts. The fifth part is conclusion.The present study has made a tentative effort to synthesize linguistic and translation theories and legal translation practice. Legal translators have to be expert in both translation and legal knowledge. In this way, they can make better choices, adaptations and selections. It is hoped that the study may somehow shed light on future legal translation study and practice.