6. The translation of legal texts as culturemes
-
Alenka Kocbek
Abstract
To fully envisage the overall culture-boundness of legal texts, a targeted translation procedure has to combine insights resulting from work in several disciplines, such as translation studies, sociocognitive and cultural approaches to terminology studies, comparative law and legal linguistics. We suggest viewing legal texts as culturemes, i.e. patterns of communicative behaviour involving both the extra-textual aspect (the legal system/culture underlying the text) and the textual aspects (the textual macro- and microstructure). Within the cultureme model, legal terminology, i.e. concepts and categories specific to a particular legal system, is considered the key textual aspect which functions as a signpost – by marking the text type and the relevant area of law in which it occurs and by contributing to identifying the legal system and the wider legal culture underlying the text. The cultureme model is also applied in producing the target text in which features of the source and target culturemes are combined to best comply with the skopos.
Abstract
To fully envisage the overall culture-boundness of legal texts, a targeted translation procedure has to combine insights resulting from work in several disciplines, such as translation studies, sociocognitive and cultural approaches to terminology studies, comparative law and legal linguistics. We suggest viewing legal texts as culturemes, i.e. patterns of communicative behaviour involving both the extra-textual aspect (the legal system/culture underlying the text) and the textual aspects (the textual macro- and microstructure). Within the cultureme model, legal terminology, i.e. concepts and categories specific to a particular legal system, is considered the key textual aspect which functions as a signpost – by marking the text type and the relevant area of law in which it occurs and by contributing to identifying the legal system and the wider legal culture underlying the text. The cultureme model is also applied in producing the target text in which features of the source and target culturemes are combined to best comply with the skopos.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Dynamics and terminology 1
-
Part one: legal terminology
- 1. Multilingualism and legal integration in Europe 17
- 2. Capturing dynamism in legal terminology 43
- 3. The harmonization of legal cultures, concepts and terms 61
- 4. Cross-domain disharmonization. A case study with adventure activities in legal and tourist domains in Spain 79
- 5. Le vocabulaire juridique en sängö 99
- 6. The translation of legal texts as culturemes 111
-
Part two: scientific and technical terminology
- 7. Specialized knowledge dynamics 135
- 8. The dynamics of terminology in short-term diachrony 159
- 9. A method for analysing the dynamics of naming from a monolingual and multilingual perspective 183
-
Part three: business and financial terminology
- 10. The dynamics of accounting terms in a globalized environment 215
- 11. Concept change, term dynamics and culture-boundness in economic-administrative domains 235
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Part four: Terminology planning: Some challenges
- 12. The dynamics of terms and meaning in the domain of machining terminology in French and English 259
- 13. La mesure de la variation terminologique comme indice de l'évolution des connaissances dans un environnement bilingue 281
- Index 303
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Dynamics and terminology 1
-
Part one: legal terminology
- 1. Multilingualism and legal integration in Europe 17
- 2. Capturing dynamism in legal terminology 43
- 3. The harmonization of legal cultures, concepts and terms 61
- 4. Cross-domain disharmonization. A case study with adventure activities in legal and tourist domains in Spain 79
- 5. Le vocabulaire juridique en sängö 99
- 6. The translation of legal texts as culturemes 111
-
Part two: scientific and technical terminology
- 7. Specialized knowledge dynamics 135
- 8. The dynamics of terminology in short-term diachrony 159
- 9. A method for analysing the dynamics of naming from a monolingual and multilingual perspective 183
-
Part three: business and financial terminology
- 10. The dynamics of accounting terms in a globalized environment 215
- 11. Concept change, term dynamics and culture-boundness in economic-administrative domains 235
-
Part four: Terminology planning: Some challenges
- 12. The dynamics of terms and meaning in the domain of machining terminology in French and English 259
- 13. La mesure de la variation terminologique comme indice de l'évolution des connaissances dans un environnement bilingue 281
- Index 303
