Legal systems and current trends in legal discourse

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CHAPTER 2: CURRENT DISCOURSE IN CORPUS-BASED TRANSLATION STUDIES

Introduction

Translation Studies has to date seen major developments resulting from an amalgamation of linguistic research and technological advancement. This combination has paved the way for studying languages/texts (i.e. corpora) through computer-aided tools. Corpora therefore constitute a remedy for a number of theoretical concerns that have plagued the discipline for a long while. With CTS, no one can object to considering translations as texts in their own right, useful resources for (trainee) translators and translation scholars. As it stands, the era of CTS is one where corpus users, whether researchers or professionals, can keep abreast of developments in the field, generating viable theories, and producing target texts that read as naturally as possible or at least conform to the required function the translation is expected to fulfil.

CTS as an effort geared to understanding translation

Translation Studies as an academic discipline has registered a number of major developments since the 1990s as a result of cross- and inter-disciplinary contributions as well as technological advancement. In the introductory part of her paper, Kenny (2005:154) succinctly points out the shift in translation from notions of equivalence and fidelity to source texts and authors towards a rethinking of translations as texts in their own right. Equally she regards translation as functional in the target-language environment, affecting the target readership, and bearing not only the thumbprint of the source texts but also of other natively produced texts in the target language. There is a shift in the sociolinguistic view of translation: no longer is translation a derivative activity of its original, but a product of target language and culture (Toury 1995:26).Mona Baker, a translation scholar, introduced corpora in TS almost two decades ago. TS borrowed corpus linguistics methodology and applied it to its object of study, namely translations as texts in their own right. This amalgamation brought about CTS. It is an invaluable resource to address theoretical, practical and applied translation issues and is now considered to be a coherent, composite,and rich paradigm, involved in theoretical, descriptive, and practical issues in the discipline (Laviosa 2002:22).Within CTS, research addressing hypotheses and theoretical constructs, the empirical findings, and practical applications have been carried out (Laviosa 2002:22). It is in this vein that translation scholars (Baker 1993, 1995, 1996;Laviosa 2002) have elaborated on CTS as a stepping stone to investigate and elaborate fundamental theoretical issues and describe the nature of translation product, process, and use in real-life translation. The application of corpora in translation sheds light on the nature of translation and translational behaviour under socio-cultural and situational pressures underlying the translating activity.CTS uses a unique methodology which – borrowed from corpus linguistics –allows the unveiling of the distinctive features of translated texts (Laviosa 2002:23), thus permitting the elaboration of (predictive) autonomous discipline hypotheses and theories.Clearly elaborating on Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), Toury (1995:1) stipulates that well-defined and well-investigated corpora, or sets of problems are unrivalled measures of testing, refuting, and especially modifying and amending the theory that underlies translation research and practice. It is undeniable that the existing relationships within translation studies as a whole are reciprocal in nature (Toury 1995:1) to the extent that CTS in particular, or DTS at large,closely and inseparably interrelates, defines, refutes, and refines the existing hypotheses and theoretical models. In view of the CTS theoretical and methodological underpinnings, we are able to systematically describe translation as a process, a product, and abide by its desired function, hence its interaction with translation theorizing (Laviosa 2002:10-11).Inspired by Holmes’ basic map of TS and Toury’s internal organization of DTS (1995:10-17), the above-proposed corpus-based and theory-driven triadic translation relationship can be matched up with and extrapolated to corpus-based approaches and translation theories, with functionalist approaches taking the lead.On the one hand, when facing a translation task, one no doubt thinks of the pivotal element, i.e. the function that the product one’s translation is expected to fulfil (cf. Nord 1997). Both the function and product are borne in mind at every stage of the translation process, in a looping manner. The existing theories step in to guide the process through the manipulation of the translation strategies deemed appropriate. Once the task is completed, the theorist or the critic revisits the translation theory that has guided the process all along up to the product in order to achieve the expected function. Flawed, the theory will be refined; tenable, the theory will be further confirmed. Interestingly, an objective and databased way of refining the process would be through the investigation of translational corpora.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 Research objectives
1.4 Research questions
1.5 Context, significance and justification of the study
1.6 Spatial and temporal location of the study
1.7 Scope and limitations of the study
1.8 Structure of the dissertation
CHAPTER 2: CURRENT DISCOURSE IN CORPUS-BASED TRANSLATION STUDIES
2.1 Introduction
2.2 CTS as an effort geared to understanding translation
2.2.1 New era, new approach in TS
2.2.2 Corpus tools and their application to TS
2.2.3 Corpora: the translator’s and scholar’s emporium
2.2.3.1 CTS and translation analysis
2.2.3.2 CTS and the translator’s style
2.2.3.3 CTS and translator training
2.2.3.4 CTS and translation practice
2.2.3.5 CTS and terminology
2.2.3.6 CTS and translation research
2.2.4 Background to CTS and theoretical framework
2.2.5 CTS perspectives and trends
2.2.6 CTS and translation universals
2.2.7 Lexical items and their place in translation
2.2.8 (Lexical) simplification as a translation universal
2.2.9 Lexical simplification and legal translation
2.2.10 Translation-in-context or translation-in-system
2.3 Legal systems and current trends in legal discourse
2.3.1 English legal system versus French legal system
2.3.2 Simplified language of the law or Plain Language Campaign
2.3.3 Lexical features of the language of the law
2.3.4 Nature of lexical equivalence
2.4 Current trends in legal translation
2.4.1 Text function and legal translation
2.4.2 (Re-) foreignization or domestication of ST legal loan terms
2.4.3 Strategies for ST loan terms in legal translation
2.4.3.1 Loan word plus explanation
2.4.3.2 Repetition
2.4.3.3 Substitution
2.4.3.4 Deletion
2.5 When functional approaches meet legal translation
2.6 Is there any gap to bridge?
CHAPTER 3: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Corpus compilation
3.3 Corpus processing
3.4 Analytical framework
3.5 Theoretical framework
3.6 The International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia
3.7 The synopsis of the parallel corpus
3.8 The synopsis of the comparable corpus
3.9 Legal translation and the legal translator
3.10 Text types and translation strategies
3.11 Tertium comparationis
3.11.1 Instances of Latinisms in ST
3.11.2 Instances of Latinisms in the TT
3.11.3 Instances of Latinisms in the non-translated legal French
3.11.4 Concordances and computer retrieval of Latinisms
3.12 Context and co-text
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Interpretation of the corpus data
4.2.1 Research question 1
4.2.2 Research question 2
4.2.3 Research question 3
4.2.4 Research question 4
4.3 Discussion of the findings
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
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