The Translation Of Rhetorical Discourses In The English Judgement

As Posner put,the art of judgement lies in rhetoric.Chen Wangdao divided rhetoric into passive rhetoric and active rhetoric.Passive rhetoric focuses on the clear and coherent meaning,and the neat and balanced form.Passive rhetoric,in presenting truth,is usually based on the natural and social relations,and,in logical reasoning,tends to rely on the reaon-result and logical relations.Passive rhetoric is to employ plain languge and words to make accurate or precise expression.Thus,passive rhetoric is widely used in the judgement,and the employment of passive rhetoric could improve the quality of the judgement.Active rhetoric,by way of the specific figure of speech,triggers association to realize the optimal rhetorical effect.Active rhetoric is concrete and experiential,which makes the language of judgement more vivid and easier to be understood.Passive and active rhetoric are not exclusive but supplementary,which often work together in a same discourse to construct a qualified judicial opinion.The judgement for the case Elonis v.United States is chosen as the source text of the translation project.With the rise and popularity of social media,the issue whether "threatening" others by posting on social media belongs to the freedom of speech that is protected by the first amendment,is now faced by the United States federal court.Elonis v.United States is a case involving cyber threats,which is of great significance,as it was the first time for the U.S.Supreme Court to hear the case involving the freedom of speech on the social media.According to Susan ?ar?evi?'s classification of text types,this judgement falls within the primarily descriptive but also prescriptive texts.Unlike the academic text,the judgement is performative.In addition,in the common law system,the judgement shows not only its justification,but also its legitimacy.The present report mainly consists of four chapters.The first chapter sets forth the background,significance and objectives of the translation task and analyzes the nature and linguistic features of the source text.The second chapter describes the translation process,including the pre-translation preparation,the schedule,the performance of quality control and emergency precautions.The third chapter is the most important part of the report,case study,which,from the perspective of passive rhetoric and active rhetoric,demonstrates the translation difficulties encountered by the translator and how these problems are resolved.The last chapter is the summary of the translation practice and practice report.It is hoped that the translation practice and the translation analysis will provide a reference for the translation of English judgements.