Научная статья на тему 'Lexical and semantic features of the legal text in foreign language'

Lexical and semantic features of the legal text in foreign language Текст научной статьи по специальности «Языкознание и литературоведение»

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Ключевые слова
ЮРИДИЧЕСКИЙ ТЕКСТ / ПЕРЕВОД / ЛЕКСИКО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ / ЮРИДИЧЕСКИЙ ТЕРМИН / ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ / СТРАТЕГИЯ / LEGAL TEXT / TRANSLATION / LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC / LEGAL TERM / TRANSFORMATION / STRATEGY

Аннотация научной статьи по языкознанию и литературоведению, автор научной работы — Mironenko Victoria Vladimirovna

This article discusses lexical and semantic features of English-language legal texts, identifies linguistic phenomena that must be taken into account when translating documents, it is important for their adequate translation.On the basis of functional, structural and semantic characteristics, a definition of a legal term is derived, by which it is proposed to understand a word or phrase used in the functioning of a legal official business style of the language, expressing the key concept of a legal norm, having clear semantic boundaries, narrow lexical compatibility. The translation of single-element and multicomponent legal terms based on the functional and stylistic identity of the components of the term, the allocation of the word being defined, the analysis of semantic links between the elements of the word combination and their division into semantic groups, matching is analyzed. The author notes that the main share of all transformations in the translation of legal texts is lexical transformations. Less commonly used lexical and grammatical transformations. Strategies of translation are considered. The emerging imperative need to train highly professional translators in the field of intercultural communication of legal orientation makes it necessary to study the question of equivalence of languages, the influence of the primary language on the secondary. In the context of intercultural communication, the study of the factors of translation of a legal text is constructed taking into account the main features of language culture, the type and mechanism of social coding of the native and foreign languages.

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ЛЕКСИКО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ЮРИДИЧЕСКОГО ТЕКСТА НА ИНОСТРАННОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

В статье рассмотрены лексико-семантические особенности англоязычных юридических текстов, выявлены языковые явления, которые необходимо учитывать при переводе документов, что является важным для их адекватного перевода. На основе функциональных, структурных и семантических характеристик выводится определение юридического термина, под которым предлагается понимать слово или словосочетание, употребляющееся в условиях функционирования юридического официально-делового стиля языка, выражающее ключевое понятие правовой нормы, обладающее четкими семантическими границами, узкой лексической сочетаемостью. Анализируется перевод одноэлементных и многокомпонентных юридических терминов, в основе которых лежит функционально-стилевая принадлежность компонентов термина, выделение определяемого слова, анализ смысловых связей между элементами словосочетания и деление их на смысловые группы, подбор соответствия. Автор статьи отмечает, что основную долю всех трансформаций при переводе юридических текстов составляют лексические трансформации. Реже используются лексико-грамматические трансформации. Рассмотрены стратегии переводческой деятельности. Возникшая настоятельная потребность в подготовке высокопрофессиональных переводчиков в сфере межкультурной коммуникации юридической направленности вызывает необходимость изучения вопроса эквивалентности языков, влияния первичного языка на вторичный. В условиях межкультурной коммуникации исследование факторов перевода юридического текста строится с учётом основных особенностей языковой культуры, типа и механизма социального кодирования родного и иностранного языков.

Текст научной работы на тему «Lexical and semantic features of the legal text in foreign language»

филологические науки -языкознание

Мироненко Виктория Владимировна ЛЕКСИКО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЕ ...

УДК 811

ЛЕКСИКО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ЮРИДИЧЕСКОГО ТЕКСТА НА ИНОСТРАННОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

© 2018

Мироненко Виктория Владимировна, кандидат педагогических наук, доцент кафедры социально-гуманитарных дисциплин Крымский федеральный университет им. В.И. Вернадского, филиал в Севастополе (299038, Россия, Севастополь, ул. Астана Кесаева, 14 ж, e-mail: vikmir2606@yandex.ru)

Аннотация. В статье рассмотрены лексико-семантические особенности англоязычных юридических текстов, выявлены языковые явления, которые необходимо учитывать при переводе документов, что является важным для их адекватного перевода. На основе функциональных, структурных и семантических характеристик выводится определение юридического термина, под которым предлагается понимать слово или словосочетание, употребляющееся в условиях функционирования юридического официально-делового стиля языка, выражающее ключевое понятие правовой нормы, обладающее четкими семантическими границами, узкой лексической сочетаемостью. Анализируется перевод одноэлементных и многокомпонентных юридических терминов, в основе которых лежит функционально-стилевая принадлежность компонентов термина, выделение определяемого слова, анализ смысловых связей между элементами словосочетания и деление их на смысловые группы, подбор соответствия. Автор статьи отмечает, что основную долю всех трансформаций при переводе юридических текстов составляют лексические трансформации. Реже используются лексико-грамматические трансформации. Рассмотрены стратегии переводческой деятельности. Возникшая настоятельная потребность в подготовке высокопрофессиональных переводчиков в сфере межкультурной коммуникации юридической направленности вызывает необходимость изучения вопроса эквивалентности языков, влияния первичного языка на вторичный. В условиях межкультурной коммуникации исследование факторов перевода юридического текста строится с учётом основных особенностей языковой культуры, типа и механизма социального кодирования родного и иностранного языков.

Ключевые слова: юридический текст, перевод, лексико-семантические особенности, юридический термин, трансформация, стратегия.

LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE LEGAL TEXT IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE

© 2018

Mironenko Victoria Vladimirovna, candidate of pedagogical sciences, associate professor of the department of social and humanitarian disciplines Crimean Federal University named after V.I.Vernadsky, branch in Sevastopol (299038, Russia, Sevastopol, Astana Kesaeva str., 14 w, e-mail: vikmir2606@yandex.ru)

Abstract. This article discusses lexical and semantic features of English-language legal texts, identifies linguistic phenomena that must be taken into account when translating documents, it is important for their adequate translation.On the basis of functional, structural and semantic characteristics, a definition of a legal term is derived, by which it is proposed to understand a word or phrase used in the functioning of a legal official business style of the language, expressing the key concept of a legal norm, having clear semantic boundaries, narrow lexical compatibility. The translation of single-element and multicomponent legal terms based on the functional and stylistic identity of the components of the term, the allocation of the word being defined, the analysis of semantic links between the elements of the word combination and their division into semantic groups, matching is analyzed. The author notes that the main share of all transformations in the translation of legal texts is lexical transformations. Less commonly used lexical and grammatical transformations. Strategies of translation are considered. The emerging imperative need to train highly professional translators in the field of intercultural communication of legal orientation makes it necessary to study the question of equivalence of languages, the influence of the primary language on the secondary. In the context of intercultural communication, the study of the factors of translation of a legal text is constructed taking into account the main features of language culture, the type and mechanism of social coding of the native and foreign languages.

Keywords: legal text, translation, lexical and semantic, legal term, transformation, strategy.

Formulation of the problem. Increase in contacts between representatives of different linguistic communities in various fields of scientific knowledge leads to the need for high-quality translation of texts from one language to another.

Nowadays all the problems of translation studies are analyzed in relation to the peculiarities of translation from a foreign language into the native one by a translator. Many scientific works are devoted to translation into a foreign language. That is why the choice of the topic of this article is due to two factors: insufficient knowledge of the process of translating from the native language into a foreign language and the recently increased interest in the social and cultural patterns of the text which are necessary to ensure high quality translation.

The creation of the text that can be a full replacement of the original text in the process of intercultural communication with the help of translational language is relevant. Experts take into account lexical and semantic features of English-language legal texts when they translate documents into foreign language, determine the semantic proximity of the text in native language and the text in foreign language.

Analysis of recent publications. The development of international relations, the increase in the volume of legal regulation, the expansion of the terminological apparatus

of law are the cause of interest in problems of the theory and practice of legal translation. The study of lexical and semantic features of the text is devoted to the scientific works of A.A. Atabekova [1], O.V. Barabash [2], S.V. Vlasenko [3], V.Z. Demyankov [4], V.B. Isakov [5], T.V. Kashanina [6], D. Lotte [7], M.M. Muschinina [8], F.A. Sokolov [9], A.A. Teleshev [10], V. Turanin [11], D.N. Slepnev [12], A.F. Cherdantsev [13] and others. Scientists believe that one of the most urgent problems is the interpretation of legal text. Therefore, the search for new approaches to translation activities is needed. How correctly and skillfully a person uses translation techniques, depends on the correct understanding of the translated text. It is especially important for texts of a special nature.

Statement f basic material. The study of the translation peculiarities of any text is based on the main features of language culture, the type and mechanism of social coding of the native and foreign languages in the context of intercultural communication.

Such an approach helps in the best way to solve practical problems which are related to the peculiarities of translation, in particular, a legal text. Not only knowledge of legal terminology, judicial-procedural systems and legal norms, but also the personal qualities of the translator, who is not only

Mironenko Victoria Vladimirovna philological sciences -

LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC ... linguistics

bilingual, but also capable of reconstructing the cultural context of the original text, plays an essential role in the understanding of the text by representatives of other nations. A scientist should feel the cultural characteristics, lexical and semantic features of the translated text because language is not an isolated subject. It is a part of the culture while translation is not only a substitute for a language, it is also a functional substitute for cultural elements.

Legal discourse is a complex expression of the relationship between a man and society in the field of jurisprudence. The legal text is a product of the relevant discourse and a distinctive factor between people of different cultures.

Any legal text should be accurate and full of presentation of the material in the almost complete absence of those expressive elements that are used in fiction and that give speech emotional richness.

The specialist who translates the legal text tries to exclude the possibility of arbitrary interpretation of the translated sentences. As a result, in the legal literature there are almost no such expressive means as metaphors, metonymy and other stylistic figures that are widely used in works of art to give a lively, figurative speech.

The authors of legal texts avoid the use of expressive speech in order not to violate the main principle of legal terminology - accuracy and clarity of thought. That is why the legal text seems somewhat dry. It is devoid of elements of emotional coloring.

The translator needs not only to preserve the meaning of the original legal text but also to construct the sentences so that they should be understandable for a native speaker. In this regard, the problem of equivalence levels in translation appears in a new light. Different scientists identify different levels of equivalence of the text in original and the translation of the text. Most of them consider that equivalence should be considered at the level of vocabulary and grammar, but their opinions differ. It is important to take into account higher levels (text level, cultural level, etc.). The equivalence at these levels provides the same pragmatic effect on the recipient of information as the text of the original.

When a specialist begins to translate from Russian into English, he begins with lexical and semantic features transformations of the text at the level of a separate sentence as a minimal speech work. However, this is not a grammatical sentence. This is a sentence that coincides in a form and is included in a specific speech situation and has a specific communicative task. Thus, the focus is on the communicative perspective of the proposal. It is actual segmentation that performs a communicative function, conveys information and influences the choice of grammatical and semantic structures, the way a sentence is constructed.

When a person translates a legal text from Russian into English, he can trace the steady tendency of somelexical and semantic features which prevail over others. If it is possible to analyze the quantitative ratio of the used lexical transformations, then it can be noticed that the tendency of refusal in the process of translation from some semantically redundant words that do not have important semantic meaning.

The specifics of the translation of legal documents is primarily due to the presence in the source language of well-established terms and expressions, in the narrow field. Functional, structural and semantic characteristics terms of legal terms allow us to derive the following definition. The legal term is a word or phrase usedin the functioning of the legal underlay of the official businesslanguage style, expressing the key concept of the legal norm, possessing-clear semantic boundaries, limited opportunitieshabits. At the same time, as experts note, the greatest difficulties are caused by 'the translation is not of the legal terms proper recorded inlanguage system in explanatory and translation dictionaries and reference books, and unitslexical and semantic language system' [14, c. 139-142], the meaning of which in specific legal documents is determined by the lingual and cultural context.

High-quality translation implies respect for lexical and

semantic features of the text. According to L. Tkacheva [15] all legal terms can be divided into three groups:

- simple one-component terms, for example, accept (acceptance), auction (auction), exchequer (treasury), taxation (law), lawfully (legal);

- complex two-part (three-part, four-part) terms, for example, taxpayer (налогоплательщик), chairman (председатель судебного заседания); driving under the influence (вождение автотранспортного средства в состоянии алкогольного опьянения).

Words in English have a more abstract character than similar ones in Russian; a generalization technique finds great use when a word or a word combination of the source language with a narrower meaning is replaced with the corresponding one from English, but with a broader meaning. So, the phrase «входеследственногоэксперимента» corresponds to the English 'in a re-enactment of the crime'; the phrase «написалявкусповинной» - 'wrote a surrender'.

Changes may be complex. There is a transformation of both individual words and sentences in general. Despite the fact that the lexical units do not have a common internal form and similar semantic components, they sufficiently convey the semantic content expressed in different languages: «прекращается» - 'no longer valid'.The unit is replaced with a logical word or phrase: «подзащитныйпояснил» - 'the defendant described these events as follows.

In the context of legal translation, it is important to note structural and logical transformations, which include:

1. Situational compensation (the translator uses this type of transformation in the need to introduce his own notes, the so-called footnotes. Departing from the postulate about the invisibility of the mediation being carried out, he uses footnotes as an explicative method that helps to fill in the translation, most likely unknown for the recipient, cultural information).

2. Stylistic compensation (legal translation, in particular, translation of investigative and judicial documents, sometimes involves correcting stylistic mistakes, changing incorrect, erroneous combinations of words and bring the original text to the desired presentation style in the target language).

3. Logical and grammatical compensation (there may be hard-to-read or unreadable places in the course of the translation of handwritten investigative and judicial documents) [16, c. 96-101].

It is necessary to restore the logical-grammatical connection of the sentence.

Thus, it may be denoted that the reception of lexical omission, generalization, the reception of semantic development and holistic transformation that are the most frequently used in the translation of legal text from Russian into English - and, in addition, it can be singled out a group of structural and logical transformations as an addition to the current translation transformations.

In the process of translating a legal text from Russian into English, the following strategies are implemented.

1. A strategy for a general assessment of the stylistic proximity of the legal text in original and that group of texts to which the translation text should belong.

When implementing this strategy, the translator must assess the degree of emotionality and expressiveness of the translated text (in Russian) and bring it by choosing appropriate equivalents in line with the norms of the English political discourse.

Within the framework of this strategy, it is necessary to single out all those parts of the translated text, where its author emphasizes his personal opinion, creates the 'presence effect' and resorts to excessive conversation. Further search for translation solutions should be approached to the norms of English political discourse. A subjective, categorical personal assessment is recommended to be converted to a more implicit evaluative characteristic of the English political text with a lesser degree of categorical. Accounting to these features during the translation it is more conducive to ensure pragmatic equivalence of original text and text translation Baltic Humanitarian Journal. 2018. Т. 7. № 4(25)

филологические науки -языкознание

Мироненко Виктория Владимировна ЛЕКСИКО-СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЕ ...

than the direct transfer of all the features of original text that violate the norms of the English legal text.

2. It is necessary to observe the structure of the organization of the translation text (division of the text into paragraphs, taking into account the boundaries of super phrase unity as text segments (oral or written), characterized by relative semantic and functional completeness, close logical, grammatical and lexical links that unite the components of the text.

3. Structural transformation of specific sentences included in the source text into sentences in the target language [17, c. 174-177].

Basically, in the process of translation into English, the following transformations occur:

-structural transformation and division of the proposal;

-consolidation of sentences during translation;

-transformations associated with the logical presentation of information in a legal text;

-additions or omissions that ensure compliance with accepted grammatical norms of constructing a sentence in the English language.

-logical layout of semantic groups [18].

The following tips should be kept in mind while doing legal translation:

1. Identify technical difficulty, volume and linguistic peculiarities.

2. A legal translator requires a sound knowledge in legal as well as cultural and linguistic fields.

3. There are separate areas of law within the legal field that require specific translation techniques. A legal translator should refer to a bilingual dictionary.

4. The translator should find out language structures with the same expression as written in the source language.

5. The quality of the legal translation should be checked properly and a final strict check should be done to make sure that the process has been done in a correct manner and the translated documents are ready for the court proceedings or usage as a legal document.

Conclusion. Thus, the translation process necessarily includes the reconstruction of the text which is based on the understanding and interpretation of the translator. At the same time, legal translation is more an act of intercultural communication than an act of interlinguistic communication. Legal translation is the language conversion of texts within the field of law. Legal translation is not an easy task. Only professional translators in legal translation should translate legal documents and scholarly writings and take into consideration all lexical and semantic features of the text. The mistranslation of a passage in a contract, could lead to lawsuits and loss of money.So while doing any legal translation one should be much focused and concentrate on it. A legal translator should have a fine understanding and knowledge of the legal terms. He or she has to be very careful to avoid any sort of mistake and error.

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Статья поступила в редакцию 10.10.2018 Статья принята к публикации 27.11.2018

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