Pleonasm In Legal English And Its Translation: A Perspective Of Cultural Turn

Based on an observation of legal cultures, the present study examines pleonasm in legal English through a thorough analysis of the ideological, historical, political, sociological and other cultural factors relevant to pleonasm. It also endeavors to raise feasible strategies for pleonasm translation such as domestication and foreignization from the perspective of cultural turn. The present study determines that its endeavor will contribute to the improving the quality of translated versions and conduce to the expectancy as well as acceptance of the readers and even to the intercultural communication.The author sets out to review the previous researches on legal English and pleonasm therein. Though many previous studies have focused on legal terms and sentence patterns in light of linguistics, limited research work can still be found covering pleonasm and its translation from the perspective of legal culture. Next, focusing on the topic of culture, the author plunges into the analysis of the connotations of culture, translation and legal culture and the relationships thereof, and she introduces the concept cultural turn, including its origin and development, into her research work. Then the major types of pleonasm are discussed from lexical, syntactic and textual aspects, including the cultural reasons of their formation and existence. Bearing the influence of cultural turn on legal translation in mind, the author examines two main translation strategies, i.e., domestication and foreignization. And their application to legal English texts is also discussed. Then, after a comparison of cultural difference between legal English and legal Chinese, a number of specific translation techniques of pleonasm are expounded and illustrated.In the conclusion it is pointed out that firm grasp of the cultural features of pleonasm, basic knowledge of legal cultures, and good command of translation strategies and specific translation techniques will contribute a great deal to improving the quality of legal translations.