A Corpus-Based Approach To The English Translation Of Modal Operators In Chinese Legislative Texts

As the carrier of law,legal language is authoritative and legally binding,being quite distinct from general language.As its core part,legislative language is mainly realized by legal documents in writing such as laws,regulations and treaties,for the sake of reflecting the state's will to power through language.With the ever-increasing international exchanges,the problems in translating Chinese laws and regulations have posed serious difficulties for foreign exchange and trade.In legislative texts,legal provisions can be divided into three categories in accordance with patterns of behavior stipulated hereby: imperative,facultative and prohibitive norms.Modal operators are the core terms which indicate the nature of these legal provisions,thus being of great importance in the study of Chinese legislative texts.The key of translating modal operators in Chinese legislative texts is to functionally and adequately render rights,obligations and prohibitions conveyed in legal documents.Based on the systemic functional theory of modality system,this paper studies the modal operators in Chinese Mainland legislative texts through the Parallel Corpora of China's Legal Documents(Mainland China).It aims to figure out the features of modal operators in current Chinese legislative texts and the English versions from three aspects(distribution,value and polarity).Then it will investigate the problems of translating modal operators in current Chinese legislative texts by aligning the Chinese modal operators and their corresponding English translations.Finally,this paper endeavors to propose strategies for the translation of these modal operators based on the equivalence of legal function.The results suggest that,diversified terms are used to express the same concept of modality or the same terms are used to express different concepts of modality inMainland China's English legislative discourses,thus violating the principle of“consistency in term translation”.Specifically,the finite modal operator “shall” with median value is overused in the process of translating different Chinese modal operators.Apart from that,multiple English expressions are abused to express the same modal operator in Chinese legislative texts.Additionally,the structures of a modal verb plus the extension of the Predicate are misused since there are not such expressions in original English legislative texts.On this basis,this paper provides suggestions for the translation of modal operators in Chinese legislative texts.These modal operators can be classified into three categories: imperative,facultative and prohibitive markers in legal provisions,with functions to grant rights,impose obligations and state prohibitions respectively.In order to achieve legal equivalence,Chinese modal operators shall be translated into those with the same legal functions in English.Meanwhile,the translation should comply with the principle of consistency for accuracy and authority of law.This paper can shed some light on the English translation of modal operators in Chinese legislative texts because it enables translators to accurately convey the rights,obligations and prohibitions stipulated in the legal provisions,which is conducive to maintaining the accuracy and authority of legal norms;also,it tends to enhance the understanding of modal operators in the English versions of Chinese legislative texts based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis as well as examples,and thus this study may help the foreign personnel and companies to understand and comply with Chinese laws and regulations;furthermore,it can promote foreign exchange of Chinese legal culture and foreign trade.