On Translating The Passive Voice In Legal English

In recent years,with increasing connection between organizations and states,legal translation has got impetus and plays an important role in international exchanges.Compared with other domains of texts,passive voice is extensively used in legal English,which highlights the objectivity of legal documents.Therefore,the significance of translating the passive voice in legal English speaks for itself.Although there are ways of translating passive voice suggested by scholars and translators,there is limited study done in specifying the classifications of translating the passive voice in legal English.Taking the criminal judgment Moore v.Texas as the source text,this thesis is a report on translating the passive voice in legal English.The source text is a typical judgment including citation,syllabus and opinions of the court.In the process of translation,the author meets various obstacles and finds that the passive voice in the source text is the most difficult point for translation.The passive voice is extensively used in the judgment to describe legal agents and legal facts,which reflects the writing style of legal English.Legal language is distinctive because it presupposes the existence of a legal system.In order to correspond with the legal system,legal English is featured in peculiar structure,employing performative verbs,technical terms,commonly use of passive voice,etc..Under the guidance of Susan ?ar?evi?'s texts typology and the basic principles of legal translation provided by Li Kexing,the author completes the translation task and discusses the translation of the passive voice in legal English.After converting the source text and analyzing the translation of passive voice,the author finds that in legal English,the passive voice can be(1)translated into Chinese passive sentence with the mark of “?” if the emphasis is put on legal agents or legal acts;(2)turned into Chinese active voice if the form and meaning in legal English cannot be converted at the same time;(3)converted into non-subject sentencewhen it is unnecessary to mention legal agents;or(4)transformed into Chinese sentence with the form of “?......?” if there is a tendency to describe the state of legal agents or legal facts.Finally,the author hopes to make modest contribution to the translation of the passive voice in legal English.