Legal Context And Its Impact Upon Legal Translation

Context plays an indispensable role in the study of language meaning. Without context,there will be no base for the understanding and expression of meaning. Because of itsmeaning interpretation function, the study of context has gradually separated from thestudy of pragmatics, developed to be an independent interdisciplinary field and played amajor role in studies which are related to the study of language meaning, such as context intranslation, context in literature and context in law.This study aims to examine the definition, classification and function of “legal context”which is the application of contextual theory into legal language and the influences of“legal context” on legal translation and legal interpretation. Through the present study, it isfound that “legal context” has its own particular characteristics compared with “generalcontext” where those particular characteristics can deviate language meaning. Thus legalpractitioners should never take words too literally, but realize the shift of languagemeaning from general meaning to particular meaning in the process of legal interpretationand legal translation.The present study chooses the method of analyzing from generality level toindividuality level. Generality level refers to the introduction of “general context”. Then,based on the general knowledge of contextual types and functions, the present study goesdeeper into individuality level and explores the characteristics of a particular context-“legalcontext”. In order to strengthen the persuasion of current study, plenty of examples andcases have been employed.Since there are still plenty of gaps existing in “legal context” left untouched, furtherresearches and studies are needed, especially on empirical study. It is hoped that theresearching framework and direction established in the present paper can contribute anyinspiration for future scholars.