Equivalence And Non-equivalence In Legal Terms Translation

Legal English,as a special purpose·English,is possessed with the characteristics of English and legal language.As well as other legal languages,legal English abounds with a great number of terms which incarnate the features of legal English systems, make legal English more formal and stately.The quality of legal terms translation often concerns the quality of whole legal documents.Therefore,legal terms translation is a very important part in legal translation study.However,the research on legal translation in our country is comparatively late.It is still a new subject. Moreover,the research on legal terms translation is much fewer.Legal terms translation is still lacking in systematic theoretical guidance.The quality of translation is not satisfying.This dissertation uses forensic linguists' and translators' views for reference,tries to expound that equivalence in legal terms translation can be achieved in some aspects and to a certain degree.On the basis of current research on legal terms,the author tries to put forward the compensation strategies in the case of absence of equivalents and discusses the creativity of translator in the process of searching for compensation strategies.The paper is presented in five chapters.Chapter 1,the author analyzes the significance of legal translation,shows the primacy of legal terms translation,and thereby reveals the objective of this dissertation.Chapter 2,the author briefly introduces the background knowledge of legal terms, including definition,etymology,evolution,characteristics,etc,thus giving readers a general idea of it.Besides,the author also expatiate the previous studies on legal terms translation.Chapter 3 is theoretical part.The author introduces the main theories used in this dissertation,and tries to illuminate that equivalence in legal terms translation is not an illusion in some aspects and to a certain degree.Chapter 4 is the main part of the whole dissertation.The author briefly introduces non-equivalence in legal terms translation and the causes behind non-equivalence.Based on the current research on legal terms translation,the author put forwards the compensation strategies in the case of absence of equivalents or near-equivalents,including:(1) word-for-word translation with footnotes(2) paraphrasing(3) finding functional equivalent(4) transliteration(5) neologism(6) neutral term.At the same time,the author briefly introduces the creativity of translator in the process of searching for compensation strategies.Chapter 5 is conclusion.