Cultural Differences And Legal Terms Translation

Legal translation is viewed as a bridge of legal culture communication, and thetranslation of legal terms is a big difficulty in legal translation, which directlyinfluences the quality of translation of legal documents. However, precise translationof legal terms is not an easy task, which involves many factors. The most significantfactor is cultural elements involved in both source language and target language.Therefore, this thesis attempts to study the translation of legal terms from theperspective of cultural differences between Chinese law and western law.The present thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter1presents an overview of the study. The author analyzes the importanceof legal terms translation from the perspective of cultural differences betweenChinese law and western law, and gives a brief note on the data and methodology andoutlines the structure of the thesis.Chapter2reviews related literature. A revision of the definition of culture and therelationship among culture, language and translation is presented and the relationshipbetween legal translation and legal culture is also reviewed.Chapter3introduces legal terms, including definition, characteristics and itsclassification. This chapter also compares the differences between Chinese and Anglo-American legal cultures and the cultural differences that influence thetranslation of legal terms. From a cultural perspective, we find that culturaldifferences are the major barriers in legal terms translation. In order to successfullytranslate legal terms from one language into another, we must attach great emphasisto cultural differences.Chapter4probes into existing problems in the translation of legal terms causedby cultural differences. According to Sarcevic’s three divisions of the degrees ofterminological congruency, which are “equivalence or near-equivalence, partialequivalence and non-equivalence”, four basic practical principles for legal termstranslation are re-proposed, which are succinctness, consistency, standardization andequivalence. Also, three available solutions to overcome cultural barriers in legalterms translation are confirmed on the basis of present research achievements: in thecase of equivalents or near-equivalents, use literal translation; in the case of partiallyequivalent or non-equivalent, use paraphrase; and in the case of non-equivalence, useneologism.Chapter5summarizes the major findings of the present study, and points out thelimitations and problems that we need more efforts to exceed and overcome in thefuture. It is hoped that the present study may arouse the translators’ attention on thelegal cultural differences when translating legal terms, and seek more useful strategiesof translating these differences so as to improve the quality of legal terms translation.