Translator’s Subjectivity And Its Influence On Legal Translation

As the subject of translation activities, the translator had been ignored for a longtime. With the “cultural turn” in translation studies that started in the1970s, the roleof the translator is highlighted and valued. In the past few decades, studies oftranslator’s subjectivity in legal translation have spanned from the discussion ofVenuti’s “translator’s invisibility”, to the acceptance and reference of hermeneutics,skopos theory, polysystem theory, feminist theory, as well as deconstruction theory.Papers and works on translator’s subjectivity in legal translation constantly emerge,which, to a certain extent, promote the development of translator’s subjectivity, andenrich the theories of legal translation.However, there are still some limitations of studies of translator’s subjectivity inlegal translation, because most of these theories superficially concentrate on themanifestation of translator’s subjectivity in legal translation. Few studies have beenconducted on the inherent problem, that is, how the translator’s subjectivity influencesthe translator himself/herself and the target text. The problem that how to restrict legaltranslators to avoid the abuse of their subjectivity is also as unresolved as it ispervasive. This thesis aims at considering the above problems, first with respect to theinfluence of translator’s subjectivity on the translator as well as the target text, andthen with respect to the constraints on the legal translator, in an attempt to enrich thetranslation theory and guide the translation practice.This thesis firstly makes a brief review of researches on translator’s subjectivityin legal translation, and then analyses the influence of legal translator’s subjectivityon the translator and the target text. The study shows that, the influence of translator’ssubjectivity on the translator is mainly embodied in the translator’s selecting andunderstanding of the original text, together with the choice of translation strategies.The influence on the target text is mainly reflected in the style and quality of it. Thenthis thesis discusses the issues, including mistranslation and over-interpretation ofvague words, caused by abuse of translator’s subjectivity in legal translation, and studies the restrictions on translator’s subjectivity in legal translation. Finally, thispaper makes a conclusion, puts forward the limitations of the present study, and givessome advice for the future research.