A Dual Equivalence Translation Model For Legal Texts Based On Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory

Legal texts, bound with force adeffect, are considered as the carriers of legal contents and legal effects. Their translation is significant to both translation studies and law studies. Because of their special functions, the primary goal of the translation was once defined as preserving the meaning of the original as accurate as possible. As the researches go deeper, scholars come to realize that the translation is not only a process of transcoding languages, but also an act of communication within the mechanism of the law, so the goal shall be redefined as producing texts which express the meaning accurately and meanwhile achieve the legal effects intended by the authors. However, most of the domestic studies focus on the translating techniques and the theoretical research on the translation process is still lacking. As a result, the theoretical research concerning how to achieve the dual equivalence in the translation process becomes necessary."Readers'response"is one of the core notions of Nida's functional equivalence theory. In the translation of legal texts, it is convenient to visualize the"receptors'response"of both the original and the translated texts, because most of the texts lead to receptors'legal action in reality. In this sense, Nida's theory has great theoretical and practical values to the translation of legal texts. Therefore, this thesis analyzes and discusses the translation process from the perspective of Nida's functional equivalence theory and constructs a tentative translation model for legal texts. In this model, the translator should be reader-oriented. He/She first decodes the source texts to locate"kernel sentences"to get the core messages, and then transfers them into target language on the"kernel sentences"level to make sure that the content and the legal effect of the translated texts are just equivalent to those of the original. To accord with the functional equivalence theory, there are two definitions of equivalence as well. The minimal definition, namely the dual equivalence, is that the translated text can enable the intended receptors to decode the content and the legal effect that have to be understood by the original readers. The maximal definition, namely the ideal equivalence, is that the translated text can enable the intended receptors to understand the content and the legal effect exactly in the same manner as the original readers did. Furthermore, this model is applied to translating some authentic examples of the regulatory and the informative legal texts: two selected parts of Trademark laws and two complaints, to test its feasibility and applicability. To achieve this purpose, the translation process is discussed step by step.The feasibility and applicability of the model is also evaluated. As a result, this model can actually provide practical guidance for legal translators to achieve the dual equivalence in translation process. It emphasizes on the importance of the decoding process to find the content and legal effect of source text, which can be considered as the precondition for producing acceptable translation and it also affects translator's choice of translation strategies. Besides, it is noteworthy that the ideal equivalence is rarely achieved in reality due to different legal and cultural factors, so it should be treated as guidance for the translation rather than a standard. As to the minimal definition, the dual equivalence, it provides a basic requirement for acceptable translation and can"diagnose"some problems in the translated texts, e.g. the distortion of the content and the loss of the legal effect. This thesis shows that Nida's functional equivalence theory is actually feasible to be applied to the translation of legal texts and demonstrates its applicability in this field. However, this model is rudimental and needs further modification and improvement.