Understanding And Translating Lengthy Sentences In Legal English

The obvious characteristic of legal English syntax is that it has plenty of longsentences. The lengthy sentences in legal English are complicated and multivariate,this has caused much dififculty in translation and comprehension for translators.However, no matter how long and complicated, just seen from the structure and form,the lengthy sentences mainly have two kinds: the simple lengthy sentence that onlyhas one subject-predicate structure and many additional parts, and the compoundlengthy sentence that is made up of two or more subject-predicate structures thatcomposed according to certain logic relations. However, both kinds of sentences havemany modified determinant as well as coordination and compound structure. Theselengthy sentences usually have complicated levels, which make the original articlemore difficult to understand and translate.The structures of the lengthy sentences in legal English are complex but not all ina muddle. Instead，the structures are interlocking but clear, with rules to follow (DangJingzheng,2006). The translator should keep a good attitude, make a clear analysisand master the translation process for understanding and expressing during thetranslation practice. Meanwhile, the translator also has to pay attention to thedeconstruction and reconstruction of the lengthy sentences. With the free use of thetranslating skills such as the linear translation, the inverse translation，the dividedtranslation and the multiple translation, the translator should transfer as accurateinformation as possible to the target reader, to make sure that the readers for bothEnglish and Chinese have the same understanding.Based on the classification and characteirstics of the lengthy sentences in legalEnglish, the translation processes and basis translation skills for lengthy sentences inlegal English are summarized in this report by the analyzing of translation examples.