The Translation Of Vague Language In Legal English

This is a translation report on the court verdict in Commonwealth of Mass.vs.Kenneth Edelin.The court verdict is entered by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts on a manslaughter indictment against Dr.Kenneth for his performance of an abortion.Though legal language is famous for its rigorousness in a language,its vagueness is still unavoidable,which can be found everywhere in legal provisions and juridical practice.And in this translation report,vagueness plays a big role as the determination of the vague reference,fetus or baby,will decide the fate of the defendant in the case.Hence,this translation report takes the translation of vagueness in legal English texts as its main research object.Based on a great number of research literature on vagueness and its analysis,the translator classifies vagueness in the source text into the following:namely,hedges,vague concept and modal verbs at the lexical level,and passive voice and conditional at the syntactical level.Then according to the principles of equivalent translation and explanatory translation,the translator discusses various translation methods on vagueness in the court verdict,such as literal translation,addition,omission,conversion,restructuring.Finally,the translator makes a summary of this report and its implication.This report may be of references to translation of vagueness in similar texts.