Vida e Instituciones de G.B. y EE.UU.: Written Exam

1) What is the characteristic of the social classification of British people?

Social classes in Britain can be divided in three different groups: the working class, the middle-class, and high-class people. There are clear differences among the people from these groups which range from daily habits, the food they eat, topics of conversation, pastimes, sports, to values and demeanor. 

However, the one factor that actually brings these social classes apart is accent. The high-class people's accent is called Received Pronunciation and is considered to be the standard accent of the UK. The lower classes use a varying number of regional non-standard accents.

2) Which of the two houses is the most important? What's the difference between the American Congress and the British Parliament?
Since 1911 the House of Commons holds more power than the House of Lords. The Lords lost its power due to a king's retaliation against them when they rejected a bill about financial matters that wasn't meant to be their job (traditionally the Commons were in charge of bills regarding financial matters). Therefore the king let it be known that the members of the House of Lords either agreed to a bill which would limit their powers or else the king would appoint hundreds of new members to vote for their bills. The Lords preferred to have their powers limited rather than to have hundreds of new peers to deal with. That's how the Lords relinquished its power.

As for the differences between the British Parliament and the American Congress, what I've noticed from the notes is that:

• In the British Parliament the House of Lords is party-independent, while in the American Congress one or the two houses can be controlled by a political party. 
• In Britain the Lords are appointed through the traditionalist life peering system, while in the U.S. members of both houses are elected.
• In the British Parliament the House of Lords doesn't have real power to stop a bill. In the American Congress a bill must pass both houses to advance to the next stage.

3) Write about the invasions in Great Britain.
From the year 43 to 410 the Romans occupied Britannia. They left very little infrastructure behind, but they did exert an enduring influence over a big part of the Celt population (later called Britons) which may be what triggered the emergence of two distinct branches of the Celtic languages.

Then it came the Germanic invasions, which lasted a lot much longer. The first one was carried out in the fifth century by the Angles and the Saxons, and the south-east of the country was soon part of their kingdom. By the end of the sixth century their way of life predominated in nearly all of present-day England, especially in the countryside where they had a greater influence. Another Germanic invasion was executed in the eighth century by invaders from Scandinavia known as Vikings, and via armed conflict the north and east of the country was all they were able to conquer.

In the year 1066 the Normans invaded and became the rulers of England. When the Norman soldiers settled down they founded a hierarchy-based feudal system coming all the way down from the peasants (which here the English speaking Saxons), the Normandy French-speaking lords, the great nobles, to the almighty king. In terms of the politics, in the next 250 years after the invasion the Anglo-Norman kingdom extended to parts of Ireland and to the entire territory of Wales. Only Scotland did manage to remain independent but was occasionally forced to fight for it. At the level of culture though, it was the language of the Anglo-Saxons (English) and not French the one that prevailed.

4) What's the importance of religion in the UK?
With the obvious exception of Northern Ireland, most of The United Kingdom is nowadays very open and unprejudiced toward religion. Although between 40 to 60% of British people believe in God, there's absolute freedom to profess disbelief in God or in any religion.

Furthermore, in spite of fact that most British believe in god, they don't actually commit their daily lives to practicing their beliefs the church way. By this I mean that a very small minority attend mass regularly and most of them have only gone to religious services a few times in their lives. Half don't even know what Easter celebrates, and on the top of all that a survey in 2006 states that 80% of the British think that religion does more harm than good.

Finally, religion doesn't even have implications in people's sense of identity. As I said above they're for the most part indifferent of who you support or what you worship. Not even in a proposal of marriage or friendship does religion have in important role.

5) What are the two types of British newspapers? Explain the main characteristics

There are two types of newspapers, the popular papers and the quality papers. The popular ones sell to a much larger readership, are more sensationalist, and mostly focus on sex and scandal. They also contain a lot of pictures, larger headlines and a simple style of English. The quality ones are geared towards the more educated readers and develop serious story news.

These two types can also be distinguished as tabloids and spreadsheet, but this doesn't fit reality anymore because in the last decade some of the serious papers have adopted the tabloid format because it's much easier to handle.

6) What is the open university?
This is about distance education. When the open university started in 1969 its courses were taught through television, radio and especially written material. These days, of course, it uses the internet. Students send their work to tutors and attend some courses in the summer.

7) What american consumers like?
Americans are particularly fond of comfort, cleanliness, novelty and convenience.

It's believed that their love for comfort has to do with the hardships they had to go through during the tough frontier times. Perhaps the pioneers thought they'd had enough of a tough lifestyle and at some point they wanted their lives to be easier.

Cleanliness might come from the Puritans, a Protestant church group whose members stressed the need to cleanse the body of dirt and of all evil tendencies. The saying "cleanliness is next to godliness" reflects how Americans feel about having not only their bodies clean, but also their clothes, their houses, their cars, and even their pets.

Novelty might come from their pride in their inventiveness. They like to see changes in cars, clothing, and products for the home. Advertisements encourage people to get rid of old stuff, and replace them with new things, regardless of whether the old stuff still works or not.

Finally, convenience is what makes them purchase labor-saving devices such as dishwashers, food processors, microwave ovens, etc. Their desire for convenience also created the concept of fast-food, the take-out services and even prepacked food ready to cook.

8) Who is Alexis de Tocqueville?
Alexis de Tocqueville was a French historian who was especially drawn to the American democracy, society, idiosyncrasy, etc. He went to the United States in 1831 and wrote a remarkable book called Democracy in America, which is a classic study of the American way of life. He described not only the democratic system of government and how it operated, but also its effect on how Americans think, feel and act.

9) Which are the degrees obtained in the universities of USA and Britain

Vida e Instituciones de G.B. y EE.UU. : Final EE.UU

[7.1] Life in the United States

The United States is so big and ethnically diverse that lifestyle varies according to the place you live and the group you belong to or identify with. Aside from Native Americans, all Americans' ancestors come from foreign countries. In the 1500s, Spain and France claimed large territories in the country but the immigrants from England were the large majority and it was them that actually shaped the values and traditions that are dominant in today's culture of the United States.

[7.2] A nation of immigrants

In late 1800s and the early 1900s the United States took a huge amount of immigrants who mainly came from central, eastern, and southern Europe. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, there were as many as 1 million new immigrants per year, but in 1921 this number dropped to only 150,000 as the country began to limit immigration through a quota system. From 1965 to 1990 the immigration flow once again started to grow up until the point of taking in 1 million immigrants per year, the majority of which were from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia.

These two big waves of immigration had large implications in terms of the ethnic mix of the American population. Over the last two decades, Latinos, Asians and black people have been growing in number, and as most of the first generation of immigrants died already, the white people population is growing smaller.

[7.3] Cultural pluralism in the United States

Upon the large numbers of immigrants that have landed on the United States, the question that immediately arises is: will they maintain their culture or will they adopt that of America? Perhaps the answer is both. Bilingualism and biculturism are a reality in many communities, but there's also the case of many immigrant's grandchildren who simply do not speak the language of their old country and are American by culture.

Another thing worthy of mention in the context of cultural pluralism is that all minorities together outnumber the countries majority. This means that more than half of the population are members of minority groups. In spite of all this diversity, the sense of national identity is still what binds Americans together.

[7.4] Making generalizations about American beliefs

[7.5] The context of traditional American values: racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity

The United States being what many called the "land of opportunity" has always been a breeding ground for diversity. In the beginning its society was made up of Native Americans, Spanish and dutch settlers, French missionaries, African slaves, and British colonists who provided the foundation for the political and economic systems developed in the US. In this scenario, accepting diversity was the only viable option. In all this diversity what made it possible to make a homogeneous society was a definite set of rules and the same values.

[7.6] Individual freedom and self-reliance
Freedom was the first settlers' driving force to America. In order to place the power to govern in the hands of the people the British cut ties with their English kings and established the United States of America. Then they wrote the Constitution and made it clear that church and state shall be separated, and it also expressly forbade any type of aristocracy.

All these decisions honored freedom, one of the most important of the American values, and shaped the American character. However, the price to be paid for individual freedom was self-reliance. In order to keep one's freedom one must be able to support oneself both financially and emotionally. In today's American society, kids have an urgency to leave their parent's house as early as possible to prove to themselves and to everybody else that they're independent.

[7.7] Equality of opportunity and competition
The first immigrants felt that they were free from excessive political, religious, and social controls and therefore that there was a wider window for success.

If there was freedom, then there was a chance to succeed, and for success to be possible there was equality of opportunity. The immigrants knew that in their new country they wouldn't have to live among families with great inherited power. For them equality meant that regardless of their initial position everyone should have a shot in life to be successful.

However, the price to be paid for this equality of opportunity is competition, which is another very important element that of the American character. Today, Americans enjoy matching their energy and intelligence against others, and from a social perspective those who come up on top are praised and called winners; those who don't, are put down and called losers, and on top of that they feel they don't fit into the mainstream of American life.

[7.8] Material wealth and hard work
All the reasons for immigrating to America come down to having a better life, to raising their standard of living. They knew very well that if they couldn't make a fortune, their children at least would have a fairly better opportunity for a better life. However, many achieved to go from rags to riches and as a consequence a sense of attachment to material things became a value to the American people.

They don't like being called materialistic, but they do appreciate the possession of a large number of material things as it is accepted as a measure of success and social status. Again, to achieve material wealth, Americans need to pay a price: hard work. In present-day United States it's more difficult to achieve this material success as there's been a change of paradigm. The economy has shifted form being industry-based to one that's service or information-based and this has affected blue-collar workers.

[7.9] The American dream

[8.1] Freedom of religion in the United States
Due to the great number of ethnic backgrounds existent in the United States there's a lot of different religions in the country, and the right that every individual has to choose among these is the center of the religious experience in the United States. This religious diversity I'm talking about is so big that almost every religion existent in the world is represented in the U.S.

[8.2] The development of Protestantism
The development of Protestantism is started when the Protestant branch of the Christian faith broke away from the Roman Catholic church in Europe in the sixteenth century. After this happened, the Protestants found that they themselves couldn't agree in many points regarding beliefs and for this reason many "denominations" were born, such as Baptists, Methodists, Lutheran, etc. This separation stirred up strong emotions and led to the persecution of some denominations and even to many people being killed. As the years went by, however, the adoption of the Constitution and its lack of affiliation with the church brought new airs tolerance and the Protestant denominations adopted an "live and let live" kind of attitude toward the others.

[8.3] The Protestant heritage: self-improvement
Self-improvement is one of the most important values associated with American Protestantism. It's also part of the legacy this religion has introduced into society. Americans constantly seek to improve as people and the thousands of self-help seminars and support group meetings are proof of this.

[8.4] Material success, hard work, and self-discipline
Material wealth as a form of self-improvement is also part of the nation's Protestant heritage. Even though materialism and religion may seem contradictory, some of the early Protestant leaders believed that people who were blessed and defended the value of hard-work were awarded by God with material success. Hard-work and self-discipline in order to pursuit wealth set the foundations of the protestant work ethic and this made an important contribution to the industrial growth of the United States.

[8.5] Volunteerism and Humanitarianism

The idea of self-improvement also means becoming a better person by helping others, whether it be by donating part of their money (or possessions) or time. This philosophy is sometimes called volunteerism or humanitarianism. Some of the richest people from the United States, like Bill Gates and others, manage their public relations by donating big chunks of their money. Many Americans believe they should be generous with others in order to be acceptable in the eyes of God and of other Americans.

[8.6] September 11, 2011, and the national religion

[8.7] Religious diversity in the United States
The non-existence of a central church in the U.S. has encouraged the acceptance of all types of faiths, which in turn opens the door for the development of further cultural pluralism. Today, four trends can be recognized in the U.S.:

_First: the number of Protestants has to a little over 50 percent, while the Catholics are increasing in number. Those who choose "other or none" are also growing. The Jews, on the other hand, remain the same.
_Second: some people in order to find a personal religious identity switch faiths.
_Third: liberals as well as conservative religious organizations are emerging in the US.
_Fourth: many Americans, especially youngsters, define themselves as spiritual rather than religious.

[8.8] The impact of the American frontier
The American frontier consisted of the relatively unsettled regions of the western part of the country. It's what is usually portrayed in Hollywood movies where there are cowboys and indians, or maybe a ranch where a man chops wood, and stuff like that.

Here, life was more primitive that in the more populated eastern lands. And the way they came about was through people gradually moving further west as the frontier towns became more populated. The people from this time believed it was their destiny to control all the land, and eventually they did.

Some of the values associated with the frontier heritage of the U.S. are individualism, self-reliance, and quality of opportunity.

[8.9] Self-reliance and the rugged individualist
Rugged individualism and self-reliance in the frontier period meant dismissing the society's comforts and conveniences. Americans have portrayed heroes with rugged individualism as physically tough men with skills to use guns and other weapons. He was fit for the harsh conditions they had to endure in the frontier life.

There are two types of heroic rugged individualists. The earliest version of rugged heroes is seen as an individual able to get through any challenge that the wilderness might put him against with. The other type of hero came later in what is known as the "wild west", when the wilderness had already been conquered. This was more of a man against man situation, and a hero from this period is someone so physically strong that could defeat two or three ordinary men at one time. This type of hero has inspired countless of western movies.

[8.10] American Macho Heroes
The epitome of the Macho hero in the US is the typical tough man who's skillful in street fights as well as in gunfights, and who's always been the main character in movies and video games.

This idea of a hero comes from the Wild West, but some have criticized it because it underscores the importance of cooperation, it overlooks how important women have been in history, and it glorifies gunfights and violence. This is why lot of Americans draw a relationship between the violence that these heroes seem to glorify and the shootings that have taken place in recent years.

Owning guns is a very controversial issue in the U.S. that has largely been debated over and over again. The Constitution states that it's a right to own a gun, but many have strong opinions against it. It could also be said that this has a lot to do with Americans' willingness to take the law into their hands to protect themselves and their families, which is also part of the Wild West legacy.

[8.11] Inventiveness and the can-do spirit
This was all about men and women being able to come up with solutions to the problems and situations of their everyday lives. They would always manage with what they got and just by using their creativity. This readiness to invent new stuff, such as tools, spread throughout the country and led to the "can-do" spirit, which was the sense that every problem has a solution, nothing is impossible.

[8.12] Equality of opportunity

[9.1] A history of abundance
The U.S. was always been naturally abundant, and together with the fact that the immigrating Europeans came with strong determination to get rich, the country soon became one of the wealthiest in the world. These people had a sense of urgency in becoming richer and richer because they knew that in a country that status didn't depend as much in family line as in Europe, they could lose their riches in a short period of time. Therefore, the entire population joined in the task of increasing the nation's material abundance as quickly as possible. This endeavor Americans took on, now shows up in Americans judging themselves by materialistic standards, which isn't seen as a mark of weak morality, but as a sign of them feeling proud for what they've got through hard-work.

[9.2] From producers to consumers
In the early stages American society most Americans thought of themselves as producers rather than consumers. However, the mass advertising that was possible with the invention of the radio brought a change of paradigm - entertainment shows were accompanied by commercials. Later TV surpassed the Radio as the main outlet for advertising. Today it's estimated that the average American sees about 50,000 commercial a year.

[9.3] What American consumers like
Americans are particularly fond comfort, cleanliness, novelty and convenience.

It's believed that their love of comfort has to do with the hardships they had to go through during the tough times of the frontier. Perhaps the pioneers thought they had had enough of that and at some point wanted their lives to be radically easier.

Cleanliness might come from the Puritans, a Protestant church group whose members stressed the need to cleanse the body of dirt and of all evil tendencies. The saying "cleanliness is next to godliness" reflects that how Americans feel about having not only their bodies clean, but also their clothes, their houses, their cars, and even their pets.

As for novelty, it might come from their pride in their inventiveness. They like to see changes in cars, clothing, and products for the home. Advertisements encourage people to get rid of old stuff, and replace them with new things, regardless of whether the old stuff still works or not.

Finally, convenience is what makes them purchase labor-saving devices such as dishwashers, food processors, microwave ovens, etc. Their desire for convenience also created the concept of fast-food, the take-out services and even prepacked food ready to cook.

[9.4] An abundance of technology
Technology has changed the way people watch television, entertain themselves. Some years ago, the free networks NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox used to occupy the attention of the majority of Americans, but now cable and satellite TV are more popular. On the other hand, Internet have disputed television as the main source of entertainment, as users now see their computers as a TV, DVD and CD player combined. Internet is also a major source of news, information and even a shopping place.

[9.5] The challenges of technological revolution

[9.6] The ever-expanding pie?
Americans always practiced the belief that their material wealth was unlimited and so there would never exist the issue of rich people taking up a little bit too much of the pie and leave the poor with too little to get by. This way of seeing things resulted for the most part in good things, such as the fact that it made them very optimistic and reduced the conflict between the rich and the poor.

[9.7] Or the decline of the American abundance?
In recent years the United States has gone through some recessions that has made Americans re-think their idea of unlimited natural resources. In the 80s and 90s the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Many Americans now have to worker harder than their parents did to have the same standard of living. Now the reality is that working fifty or sixty hours per week might not suffice to afford the price of housing.

[9.8] The characteristic of American business
To Americans business come down to two words: private and profit. They are owned and operated by private individuals in order to make a profit.

[9.9] How business reinforces other values
Americans generally appreciate business institutions because they're firmly based on the ideal of competition. Competition is a value that opens up opportunities of progress and prosperity, but most importantly it protects the most basic values of freedom, equality of opportunity and hard-work.

Competition protects freedom in the sense that there's no monopoly to power. Where there's a business making profit, there's going to be another trying to be a notch ahead. It's also believed to strengthen the ideal of equality of opportunity; competition is equated to a race, where every body has a chance to win, but only the swiftest person with succeed regardless of social class. Finally, this value also encourages hard work. If two people run a business, the one that works harder is going to be more successful than the one who doesn't.

Traducción Juridica: 1st Mid-term

SET 1

1. Which factors have contributed to the enhanced status of legal translation in the XXI century?

Legal translation is needed whenever in a multilingual environment activities of any sort are regulated by laws. Such is the case in international cooperation and business conducted by private and public sectors, international bodies such as the European Union, governments, courts, police forces, lawyers, etc. Thus, legal translation has an enhanced status because it is absolutely essential for all these international affairs to work properly. 

2. What is ESP?

ESP stands for English for special (or specific) purposes, and over the last two decades it has come about as a result of the tendency towards greater specialization in the teaching of English. 

3. Why do legal translators need to be familiarized with two or more legal systems?

Having (at least) a good insight into the ST and the TT legal systems is of essential importance for the translator as this is the only way he or she will be able to fully understand the ST and produce quality translations with the proper selection of terms.

4. Which are the two linguistic approaches to a text suggested by Alcaraz Varó?

The first of the two approaches is "bottom-up linguistic processing" and it implies the full understanding of the ST paying close attention to every unit of meaning, which goes from the smaller ones such as morphemes and the larger ones such as sentences and paragraphs. The other approach is "top-down linguistic processing," and here the translator can more freely rely on his intuition and experience by inferring the meaning of the text. Such inferences are either confirmed or dismissed as the translator advances in the reading of the text.

5. Why is the concept of text type or genre so useful in legal translation?

The genre of the ST gives the translator a general idea of what its content will be about, which is very useful information for the translation-orientated analysis of the text.

6. What is the main concern of the plain English campaign? Why was it only partially successful?

The "plain English campaign" was driven by the necessity of ordinary people to understand the legal language when they needed to defend their rights or settle their differences. However, they could only achieve a partial clarification and simplification of it because in the end the technical accuracy which this language can provide prevailed over the demands of the uncomprehending majority. The old-fashioned and archaic language that legal texts usually make use of is less prone to semantic changes as it is not used in other contexts but in the strict legal sense.

7. Account for the large number of Latin and French terms in legal English.

The reason why there are so many Latinisms in legal English is because English grew out of a system which evolved in the Middle Ages, when Latin was the most widely spoken language throughout Europe. Therefore, a lot of precepts and formulations were inherited in the original language and left untranslated. As far as French terms are concerned, these too date back to the earliest stages of development of the English law.  Both these lexical sources have their places secured within the legal English as it is a field that relies on their accuracy to function properly.

8. What principle should guide legal translators when dealing with euphemisms?

It is advised that legal translators find a proper term that goes along with the natural habits of the target audience whenever a literal translation is not clear enough or could arise unwanted reactions such as amusement. Such is the case with a literal translation terms of art such as "a man assisting police with their inquiries," which is more adequately translated as something along the lines of "the police is interrogating a suspect."

9. Legal texts are said to be a mixture of style and registers, why?

Legal texts are indeed a breeding ground for a lot of different types of writing. For one part there is the wide use of archaic terms from Latin and French origin used in elaborated formal discourse. There is also the occasional fossilized vocabulary and syntax present in, for example, the old verb inflection "th" that appears in references to older texts. Moreover, due to the nature of the legal processes a lot of references are made to fields outside the law which makes for an even more complex mixture of terminology. Contemporary language is also added in the form of slang and idioms in euphemisms such as mugging or the language used in police reports. For all the reasons explained above as well as a number of other factors, legal texts are rich in the variety of the language used.

10. How is legal vocabulary generally classified?

Vocabulary can be generally divided into two groups: functional words and symbolic words. The former refers to words that have no meaning by themselves and whose function is to link ideas and concepts within a sentence. Some of these words are "subject to", "hereinafter", "whereas", etc. Symbolic words are those which refer to actual things or ideas in the world of reality, physical or mental, such as "contract", "right", "court", "law", etc.

This group can be further divided into a) purely technical vocabulary, which are terms only found in legal texts and with no meaning outside it like "solicitor"; b) semi-technical terms, which are common words that have acquired special meanings in the context of legal activity; c) everyday vocabulary, which are terms that are present in legal texts but keep the regular meaning they have outside it.

11. Refer briefly to the main morphological and syntactic features of legal English.
There are many different morphological and syntactic features that differentiate legal texts from others types. They can briefly be outlined as follows:

*Long sentences with multiple subordination and late placement of the main verb in the sentence.
*Complex morphology as in the words "notwithstanding" "thereinafter," etc.
*Abundant use of passive voice.
*Multiple use of conditional and hypothetical clauses.
*Occasional simple syntax of plain judicial narrative.
*Suffixes -er (-or) and -ee.

SET 2

1. In what ways has the concept of equivalence varied among different translation theories?
A few decades ago, Nida observed that semantic equivalence is of essential importance to the production of an effective translation. However, more recently new advances in the field of pragmatics has found that there are other factors that contribute new layers to the phenomenon of equivalence as well. Alcaraz names these new variables "contextualized meaning," and it comprises what is implied or understood by those involved in the context of an utterance.
2. What do translators and judges have in common?
Translators and judges share the professional task of interpreting the meaning of texts. For the translator, the purpose of interpretation is to decide on the closest possible linguistic equivalent in the target language, while for the judge it is to match up his conclusions against the definitions established in the law.
3. What is the major problem for legal translators when dealing with semantic meaning?
The problem legal translators have to often deal with is the same judges usually get hung up on: words and their semantic shift over time. Unlike in other kinds of texts, translators cannot always expect consensus among the circuit of their fellow counterparts when it comes to the definition of an ambiguous term. This is so because in legal texts, terms are continually being redefined as social developments force legislation to change simply in order to keep up with the latest standards of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Dictionaries are of very little use in this case, as they only refer to words in their past meanings.
4. What is the distinction between the concept of construction and interpretation?
To some jurists "construction" is more of a linguistic task, while "interpretation" is more ideological. In other words, "construction" is an attempt to conduct a linguistic analysis aimed at deducing the textual meaning of a word, phrase or clause from the surrounding utterance. The entire context is taken into consideration, including word position, the author's linguistic habits (if known), punctuation, etc. On the other hand, the explanations of "interpretation" have more to do with scientific theories, beliefs or precedent. However, for practical purposes are treated as close synonyms the majority of the time.

5. According to Varó, what should translators do with ambiguous terms and phrases?
Varó recommends translators to reproduce the ambiguity as literally as possible and leave the matter up to the parties concerned. Those who later will be in charge of sorting out the meanings of ambiguous terms do so by following a set rules that guarantees a sensible construction.
6. Why do judges treat ambiguity differently if the text is a statue or a private document?
In dealing with private documents, judges feel entitled to clarifying ambiguous terms without giving it much forethought. However, when it comes to construing what Acts of Parliaments are supposed to mean, they do not do it with the same feeling of freedom (If any at all). They base their decisions under the premise that MPs know what they mean and mean what they say. In other words, they honor the obvious sense of words indicated by ordinary grammar and logic.
7. What does it mean to define a text by extension or by intention?
"Extension" is defined as the class of objects to which a term refers. "Intention", in the other hand, is equivalent to the sum of the attributes comprehended in the concept.
8. Why is the concept of connotative meaning useful in legal translation?
In legal English - and certainly in all the other fields as well - some words - especially those of everyday use - do not only carry their explicit meaning, but also an implicit semantic connotation. Thus, words that seem to be technically transparent and neutral in one language, turn out to bear a strong connotative meaning in another, which either positive or negative, may in turn elicit unintended reactions from the audience. Therefore, in order for the translator to be faithful to what the author intends to convey, he needs to be aware of the connotative implication words have in the target language.
9. What are the three possible kinds of contexts?
In the first place, "context of utterance" is the immediate physical and temporal environment in which the communication takes place. The second type often receives the name of "co-text" and it is the words or sentences that precede or follow the word or phrase in question. The third sense of context is extralinguistic and consists of the habits, expectations and conventions characteristic of the society concerned.

10. What is a buried metaphor?
Buried metaphors are words or phrases that though nobody is conscious of it, they are actually metaphors.

11. What should translators do with metaphors?
When dealing with metaphors it is advised that the translator chooses the plainest possible rendering in order to avoid running the risk of highly colored expressions that are not suitable with the generally formal and even solemn tone of legal texts.
12. Is there any room for figurative language?
People tend to erroneously think that technical disciplines are largely free of metaphors. This prejudice derives from the misconception that figurative language is mere decoration. But in reality, all languages are a mixture of figurative and non-figurative elements, and whether it is legal language or any other type, figurative language is always present.
13. What do we mean by structural ambiguity?

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Es traducción fiel dell idioma inglés al español del documento xxx que he tenido a la vista y al cual me remito. San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, 17 de Junio de 2014. 

FIRMA.