摘要:Contract is a legal binding agreement whose abeyance and breach of contracts concern the legal responsibility of the two parties. Thus the translators are expected to produce parallel text identical with the source text in meaning and more importantly in legal effects.
"using antiquated terminology bestows a sense of timelessness on the legal system as something...deserving of great respect"(1999:97) while according to Ferguson’s theory, “special terms for recurrent objects and events, and formulaic sequences of routines” seem to facilitate speedy communication. Technical terms in contract seem to be the case. Estoppel, a word not recognized by Microsoft Office, is a typical legal term. If you have Black’s Law Dictionary on hand, you’ll get its meaning as follows, A bar or impediment raised by the law, which precludes a man from alleging or from denying a certain fact or state of facts, in consequence of a final adjudication of the matter in the court of law. (The Translation of Contracts–Principles, Features and Strategies 16) A preclusion, in law, which prevents a man from alleging or denying a fact, in consequence of a final adjudication of the matter in the court of law or of a contrary tenor.
3.1.2 Terms with Different Meanings
As Brenda Danet suggests, “ legal language has a penchant for using familiar words(but) with uncommon meanings”(1985:279).Let us take, for an example, the word “
assignment” which is generally known as “something assigned, a task or a duty.” Chinese translators, though familiar with its literal meaning, have to look up the meaning of “assignment” in a legal dictionary before they translate an “assignment,” which is a legal document. The same applies to the words “whereas” and “having regard to” among many others. In contracts, the above-mentioned words function as “considering” or “taking into consideration,” and must be so translated into Chinese. A considerable number of common words that have certain meanings in general usage assume completely different meanings in legal language. For instance, action comes to mean law suit, avoid assumes the meaning of cancel; hand is used to mean signature.
3.1.3 Archaic
It is absolutely necessary that the current use of the old words be taught to the translators before starting the actual translation process. The archaic expressions found in legal English include: hereinafter, hereto, herein, hereby, hereof, thereof, therein, thereby, thereto, etc. None of them can be translated by a single word, and translators often have a hard time finding equivalents for these archaic expressions. (The Translation of Contracts–Principles, Features and Strategies 17)
Example I
All disputes arising from the performance of this Contract shall, through amicable negotiations, be settled by the Parties hereto.
Chinese version: 对于因履行本合同发生的一切争议,本合同双方应友好协商解决。
It can be seen here that hereto means” to this”. Synonym like hereof, herein and hereunder are popular in contract translation.
Example II
WITNESSETH as follows;
Chinese version: 本契约规定如下:
WITNESSETH is neither mistyping nor noun form for witness, Witnesseth, meaning“to furnish formal evidence of something”, is the Old English present indicative and third person singular verb form.
3.1.4 Latin Words and Phrases
Latin is one of the most important lenders of the English language, especially as far as the legal vocabulary is concerned. Some examples are: corpus delicti, ejusdem generis, ex post facto, in personam, lex loci actus noble prosequi, per stirpes, quasi, res gestae, retraxit, sui juris, vis major, etc. As to Latin
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