On The Translation Of Litigation Documents With Foreign Elements From The Perspective Of Discourse Analysis

With the proceeding of globalization and the deepening advance of China's reform and opening up, the exchange of legal culture between China and other countries has emerged in booming trend. The importance and urgency of legal translation is self-evident. Litigation documents, as an important carrier of a country's laws, define the rights and obligations of parties with the purposes of strict enforcement of the law and maintaining social fairness and justice. Currently, academic research on the translation of litigation documents with foreign elements has not yet formed a specific and comprehensive theoretical system. And what is worse, the practical translation of litigation documents with foreign elements is irregular and full of fallacies. Some experts point out that the study level of the translation of legal texts is far behind that of such fields as the translation of literature and science and technology. But what is worth mentioning is that Halliday's systemic functional discourse analysis provides a strong theoretical support for the research and practice of translation, but also creates a new situation for the legal translation. The paper will be dedicated to making a comprehensive and systematic study on the translation of litigation documents with foreign elements from the perspective of discourse analysis. Five major parts are included in this paper:First, the definition of text or discourse and the study on discourse analysis are to be discussed. Then the basic concepts of the litigation document with foreign elements are to be explained and the general situation of the translation of litigation documents with foreign elements will be introduced. In addition, common problems and causes in the translation proceedings will be analyzed and summarized so that the practical significance of this study can be prominent.Second, from the perspective of the internal factors of discourse analysis, the choice of words and sentence structures will be discussed. Textual structure and the stylistic features of litigation documents with foreign elements will not be ignored in the process of translation in order to improve the quality of the translation of litigation documents with foreign elements on the surface structure of language.Third, started from external factors of discourse analysis, this part focuses on the unique legal context in which the legal instruments are produced, the legal system and its social functions that affect the translation of litigation instruments and points out that culture adjustment is necessary for the translation of litigation documents with foreign elements under the unique background of China's political culture.Fourth, it makes a review and sums up of the previous parts and the basic method of dialectical analysis is used to describe the specific operation mode of the discourse translation through some examples and how it is to be applied in the translation of litigation documents with foreign elements.Fifth, on the basis of the summary of this paper and the achievements that have been reached in this field, the last part will elaborate the basic principles for the translation of litigation documents with foreign elements. What is more important, the principle of humanized translation is proposed for the first time. It aims at making Chinese judicial departments pay more attention to the standard of legal language and legal translation so that the socialist democracy and the rule of law will be practiced in a more humane way, which is sure to actively promote the building of socialist harmonious society.