Legal Translation Strategies From The Perspective Of Frame Semantics

Frame semantics describes meaning on a cognitive level which deals with the generation mechanism of meaning,and is broadly applied into the study of translation.The combination of frame semantics and translation is of great theoretical and practical potential.Frame semantics also provides a unique angle to realize successful legal translation based on frame analysis and frame operation.More and more scholars in the field of legal language start to study legal language on a cognitive level,with a view to fundamentally explaining legal language phenomena and solving legal language problems.However,studies of legal language from the perspective of frame semantics need progress in both quantity and quality despite of all the merits of frame semantics.Therefore,the application of frame semantics to the study of legal translation is of inexorable trend.This thesis applied frame semantics theory to the study of legal translation by making a thorough analysis of translation process,the role of translators,legal translation objectives under frame theory,finding that legal translation is not only a transfer of languages and laws,but also a transfer of frames,that frames in different legal cultures have both commonness and specialties,that translators operate on frames during the process of frame transformation,that the goal of legal translation is to make sure that the source language and the target language can activate identical or similar frames between the source language readers and the target language readers,and that frame semantics provides a very efficient way to explain legal translation phenomena and to resolve legal translation problems.Finally,this thesis puts forward three strategies for legal translation from the perspective of frame semantics: frame equivalence,frame adjustment,and frame creation,and elaborates on each translation strategies with ample examples in the field of legal languages.