試評譯者主體性理論在中國航運法律英譯中的應用碩士學位論文-資料下載頁

　　

【正文】 law is posed of jargons and terms containing specific legal meaning and part of the dailyusage words. Some of the dailyusage words appearing in the English language of law are also rendered legal meanings which are quite different from their daily meanings. The history of legal translation in China dates back to as early as thousands of years ago. The establishment of systematic Chinese laws originated from China’s first state in historythe Xia Dynasty. At that time, wars among nations constantly broke out. Therefore, we can say that the history of China’s legal translation started with the wars. In the history of its development, exchanges between different cultures, India and the West in particular, played important roles. In Late Qing Dynasty, western missionaries and businessmen in China played a more active role in the exchanges between China and the West. The earliest introduction of Chinese legal system to the West is through the book The Travels of Marco Polo written by the Italian explorer Marco Polo. He mentioned fragments of penal law and its criminal procedures of Yuan Dynasty. Westerners did not really know Chinese life until 1582 when Matthew Ricci, an Italian missionary, came to China and lived for a long time. His China in the Sixteenth Century, the Journals of Matthew Ricci undoubtedly had its epochmaking significance for the development of European understanding of China. He introduced Chinese law to the West, and pared it with the law in Europe and even criticized Chinese legal system, which, according to Wang Jian, made him the first scholar who made a parison between Chinese and Western legal systems. From then on，many missionaries to China introduced Chinese law to the West and aroused heated discussions about China in the West. These introductions，however，were anecdotage，which seldom touched codes of China. (Wang Jian, 2001b:1431) In 1810, the English version of The Penal Code of China, translated by Sir George Thomas Staunton，was published，whose translation was mostly conducted in a free way. It is the first time that Chinese statute code had directly entered the Western world, reaching a peak of the introduction of Chinese legal culture to the West since the Ming Dynasty and in the meantime, in1876 and 1924, two French versions of Qing Code，one by Philias and the other by Blacks，were published respectively, which marked the twoway legal munication between China and the West.(Wang Jian, 2001 b: 3135) Features of legal EnglishLegislative writing has acquired a certain degree of notoriety rarely equaled by any other variety of English. It has long been criticized for its obscure expressions and circumlocutions, longwining involved construction and tortuous syntax, meaningless repetitions and archaisms. To the specialist munity these are indispensable linguistic devices which bring in precision, clarity, and allinclusiveness and so on. (Bhatia, 1994: 136) Some even declare legal English equals law plus English (Wang, 1999), which is too simpleminded thinking. Legal English is English but not law. Legal English possesses the legal professional features based on the mon English，formed and used in the activities of legislation and judicature.(張新紅，2002) From the linguistic point of view, the legal language is one variant of language like English for science and technology and so on. It is a register or professional jargon according to the persons of law. From the stylistic angle, the following definition is given: Legal English is one kind of English style which is used in legal scientific concepts or litigation or nonlitigation affairs by people especially the workers in the legal profession. As each language has its own features in style or linguistics, there is no exception to legal English. Stylistic Features Style has been generally related to language as “a manner of saying what is said”(Sledd 1959:261), and “the way language is used in[the text],”(Saha 1978:1). With respect to the stylistic features of legal English, Ma Mingli (馬明利, 2000) also brings forward his opinions on it in his thesis, namely, precision, pactness, plainness and solemnness.Generally speaking, the features can be summed up as follows:As legal text is of great importance and solemnity, it tries its best to avoid inaccurate words or unclear definitions in legal language. Precision is regarded as the primary requirement of the legislative writing and the soul of legal language. David Millinkoff (1963) says, “Opposing themselves to the inherent ambiguity of language, lawyers make many attempts at precision of expression”. The precision of legal English is realized by the use of correct words, technical terms and sentence patterns free from loopholes and ambiguities.Conservativeness and formalness are other two features of legal language. Due to the regulatory characteristics of legal language and the purpose of avoiding misunderstanding and legal disputes, the language structure of legal documents is very plicated. Native speakers of English have recently reacted against the perceived obscurity of the language of the law. Despite the fact that the ‘plain English campaign’ has had some effect on the legislature and the judiciary to clarify and simplify legal language, lawyers continue to argue that technical accuracy is an essential prerequisite of good justice and that if linguistic precision is watered down to suit the demands of an unprehending majority, legal certainty will all but disappear. (Enrique Alcaraz amp。 Brian Hughes. 2008)Impassiveness and solemnity are yet two other features. Like its counterparts in other language, legal English is a plex type of discourse. In order to create an atmosphere of solemnity, the drafters of laws tend to use many narrative sentences and imperative sentences, and avoid using descriptive modifiers so as to indicate the objectivity and the binding force of rules and regulations. It focuses on asserting a deterrent force.Besid