功能对等视角下法律术语之英译——以《民法通则》英译本为例论文.doc

AbstractIt is known to all that the activity of translation is difficult. However, among thosetypes of translation, legal translation is probably regarded as one of the major difficulties,which is largely reflected in the translation of legal terms. That how to convey the meaningof legal terms in the source language system precisely is a big problem yet to be solved inthe field of legal translation. Besides, seeking equivalence in the legal terms is viewed asone of the hot concerns of legal translators. Among tremendous amounts of translationtheories, "functional equivalence" is deemed as one of the most efficient translationtheories for the translation of legal terms.In consideration of the significant guidance of functional equivalence on legaltranslation, based on this theoretical framework, and by selecting the translations of majorlegal terms in the three English versions of the General Civil Law Act of the PRC as source materials, this thesis makes a systematical contrastive analysis of legalterms and their English expressions in the translations from the following aspects. Firstly,with the contrastive researches on both meaning and form of legal terms, this thesisconcludes that it is better to resort to some translation principles in the process of legaltranslating in order to realize equivalent translations, especially for the translation of legalterms. Secondly, this thesis makes some adjustments of the theory to suit specialcharacteristics of the translation of legal terms, and summarizes some principles such asthe priority of contextual consistency is over verbal consistency, functional equivalenceover formal equivalence, the written form over the heard form, and the forms of languageover the needs of audience. Lastly, the thesis tentatively proposes some special principlesfor the translation of legal terms from the aspects of professional, consistency, accuracyand equivalence. As far as this thesis is concerned, legal translators have to enrichthemselves with professional knowledge first and then probe into legal translation, whileduring the process of translating, they shall both transfer the meaning precisely and unifymeaning and background legal culture, and eventually realize the closet equivalence of thesource texts and the translated texts.In sum, when combined with special characteristics of the translation of legal terms,the theory of functional equivalence is of greater significance as a guiding theory. At last,this thesis is supposed to serve as a catalyst for further activity of the translation of legal146 / 46.terms and researches on guiding principles, in order to promote the quality of legaltranslation.Keywords: legal translation; translation of legal terms; functional equivalence; translationprinciples2.摘要翻译难,法律翻译更是难中之难。

法律翻译的精髓在于法律术语的翻译如何依托于法律思想,准确传达源语言术语的意义是法律翻译亟待解决的重要问题此外,寻求术语信息的对等也是法律翻译工作者关注的热点本文认为在众多翻译理论和原则中,"功能对等"是支撑法律术语翻译最为有效的指导手段之一鉴于此,本文以"功能对等"为基础理论框架,并以《中华人民XX国民法通则》〔1986 年中主要术语的英译版本为素材,从以下几个方面对该文本中的法律专业术语及其英文表达进行系统性对比分析：首先,对不同翻译版本中的术语进行意义和形式两方面的对比分析研究,认为法律翻译最好借助某种翻译原则的指导,法律术语翻译尤其如此其次,本文将尤金·奈达在"功能对等"理论中提出的"四优于"原则稍作调整,提出上下文一致优于词语一致、功能对等优于形式对等、书面形式优于口头形式、法律语言的传统形式优于读者的需求等原则,以适用于法律术语翻译的特殊领域最后,本文尝试性地总结出指导法律术语翻译的特殊原则,从专业性、一致性、准确性以及对等性方面着手,指出译者须先充实自身的专业技能,做到所掌握的相关知识与所译作品的专业知识相对接,然后准确传达原意,统一译文术语及其法律文化背景,最终实现译文与原文信息最大程度的对等。

综上,将"功能对等"理论与法律术语翻译的特殊性相结合,能更好地发挥其重要的指导作用,从而有效地引导法律术语翻译本文力求作为引玉之砖,为今后的法律术语翻译活动及其指导原则的研究打下基础,以期进一步提高法律翻译质量关键词：法律翻译；法律术语翻译；功能对等； 翻译原则3.CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTIONThe activity of translation has been of a long history either in the eastern countries orin the west. For example, by the retrospection of the history of translation in China, it isevidently shown that it has experienced four climaxes of large-scale translation since theearliest translation of the Buddhist Scripture from the Eastern Han Dynasty . And Tan Zaixi <2004: 2> has distinguished in his A Short History of Translationin the West that there have been six stages of western translation activities since the thirdcentury B.C.. As the interactions and communication between different peoples or differentlanguages have been quite frequent, apart from general translations, the "perception thatprofessional openings for translators are increasingly conditioned by market trends", thus legal translation, as a basic requirementto help draft and modify international treaties for the both parties between internationalcommunications, is paid attention to by translators. However, how to make a translationinto a satisfactory work is an eternal topic, especially when dealing with legal translation,such a highly professional discipline. In the past, translators, including linguists andlawyers, have tried hard to apply theories of general translation into legal field, amongwhich the theor。