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?

____________________________________________________________________________
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.