A Relevance-Adaptation Approach To Lexical Gaps In Legal Term Translation

Language has a close relation with culture and there is no exception in legal language.Legal language pursues precision and accuracy,and the translation of legal language is not an exception.Because of the differences in legal system,legal culture,religion and way of thinking etc.,vacancy will arise in sense and in culture when the readers from different cultural backgrounds make comprehension of the same legal terms.Consequently,legal lexical gap is inevitable in the process of translating legal terms which is always a block for translators.Therefore the present thesis explores the process of translating lexical gaps of legal terms from English to Chinese based on the theory of relevance-adaptation theoretic approach.The author first reviews the researches on lexical gaps,including the definition,the causes,the classification,the translation methods and strategies of lexical gaps.On the basis of the review,the author summarizes several commonly used translation strategies and recognizes the imperfection of the traditional translation theory in tackling lexical gaps.Pushed by the recognition,the author takes as the theoretical framework the relevance-adaptation theory which is formed on the basis of relevance theory and adaptation theory,and carries out his case study on the collected typical terms reflecting the lexical gaps.The author makes detailed illustration of the application of relevance-adaptation theoretic approach in the chosen cases,trying to confirm that relevance-adaptation theoretic approach explores the whole process of translation from the perspective of cognition and context and is an effective strategy for the lexical gaps in legal term translation.The relevance-adaptation theoretic approach provides a new perspective for solving the problem of lexical gaps in the process of translation of legal languages.It reveals that lexical gaps of legal terms can be effectively translated.It is hoped that this research can provide a new reference or guidance for legal translators.