The Reproduction Of Text Features In E-C Translation Of Legal Text

The report is based on the translation(EN-CN)practice of Education Code of The Republic of Moldova.The source text in English is a text of laws and regulations,concerning with all levels of education systems.The style is formal,professional and logical,and the sentence structure is complex and meticulous.Based on the intrinsic factors of text analysis and the problems encountered in the process of translation,the difficult point in this translation practice is how to reproduce the original features of the legal text in the translation,namely the accuracy of the translation of modal verbs,the conciseness of the translation of logical connected words and the rigor and objectivity of passive sentence translation.In the process of translation,firstly,the proper meaning of modal verbs “shall”and“may”in different legal contexts should be analyzed according to the specific conditions,for example,adopting “zero translation”strategy in certain cases.Secondly,for the logical connected words that are indispensable in English,translator needs to adopt different translation strategies based on Chinese expression habits.Besides,the typical characteristic of legal text is the massive uses of passive sentences,which are usually complex sentences.They can be classified into passive sentences with attributive clauses and adverbial clauses.In Chinese,they can be translated as Chinese passive sentences with clear signed or unsigned characters,active sentences and sentences lacking in subject.When dealing with the complex passive sentences which include attributive clauses and adverbial clauses,the translator has flexibly adopted different methods,such as addition,conversion,reversion and linear translation to reflect the rigor and objectivity of legal texts.By translating the text and writing the report,the translator has mastered the linguistic features of the legal text and summarized the report according to the translation theories and techniques acquired.It is hoped that this report may be a source of reference for other translators in legal text translation.