A Contrastive Study Of Two English Versions Of Property Law Of The PRC

With the increasing demand for international communications, legal translation,to some extent, has become an important medium of international communications.Ever since the implementation of reform and opening-up policy, a large number oflegal documents have been translated in order to promote the internationalcommunications. Among them, Property Law of the PRC is one of the mostinfluential laws, for it is relevant to the vital interests of everyone involved. Thepurpose of its English versions is to popularize it among foreigners. Therefore, theirquality is of vital importance to its accurate understanding and full implementation byforeigners. In view of this, the author makes a contrastive study of the two Englishversions of Property Law of the PRC by adopting mainly the contrastive andqualitative methods. The study is conducted on the basis of Nida’s functionalequivalence theory, for it can contribute to the realization of the goals of legaltranslation.Based on the functional equivalence theory, the thesis puts forward threetranslation criteria, namely, accuracy in meaning, appropracy in style and naturalnessin expression. Under each criterion, the thesis presents many translation techniques orsuggestions. To achieve the criterion of “accuracy in meaning”, a legal translationshould be faithful to original message. And any unreasonable omission, unnecessaryaddition and especially misrepresentation should be avoided. Besides, it is suggestedto accurately reproduce the meaning of the source text by means of avoidingambiguities, and correctly translating terms and modal verbs. To reach the criterion of“appropracy in style”, a legal translation should be formal and precise enough, forthey are typical stylistic features of legal English. Formalness is often secured byusing formal words, archaic words and borrowed words, while precision requirestranslators to be sufficiently careful in selecting words, especially in distinguishingsynonymous words as well as false lexical counterparts. And to meet the criterion of“naturalness in expression”, a legal translation should comply with the principles of conciseness, readability and consistency. Effective means to achieve concisenessinclude eliminating semantic repetition, using pro-forms and simplifying construction;while the readability of a translation can be improved with the help of addition,transformation of voices, and rearrangement of sentence structures. As for consistency,it is especially stressed to be consistent in the aspects of terms, grammars as well asparallel structures.By presenting the three translation criteria above and some subsequenttechniques or suggestions, the thesis creatively applies the functional equivalencetheory to legal translation, thus combining legal translation practice effectively withtranslation theory. Based on the three translation criteria, the thesis makes anevaluation of the two English versions by pointing out their merits and demerits, andmeanwhile concludes some reasons for their demerits. Through the contrastive study,it is found that the guidance of the functional equivalence theory in legal translationcan contribute to improving the quality of legal translation...