Chinese translations of legal terms in early modern period: An empirical study of the books compiled/translated by missionaries around the mid-nineteenth century
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Wensheng Qu
Wensheng Qu (b. 1977) is a professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law 〈qu_kevin@hotmail.com〉. His research interests include legal translation history and Anglo-American legal history. His publications includeA study of common law writs (2011); andResearch from dictionaries: Translation history of legal terms in China (2013).
Abstract
China-based missionaries around the mid-nineteenth century played a crucial role in initially rendering legal terms in Western languages into Chinese. A survey of early English-Chinese magazines, dictionaries, and books on law reveals the forms in which the earliest translated legal terms in Chinese assume, calling attention to their marked differences from the same set of terms in Chinese characters that were later borrowed from Japan. The findings about the missionaries’ creative translation activities in China are of cultural and socio-psychological interests to Chinese lawyers, historians, and translators of our time.
About the author
Wensheng Qu (b. 1977) is a professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law 〈qu_kevin@hotmail.com〉. His research interests include legal translation history and Anglo-American legal history. His publications include A study of common law writs (2011); and Research from dictionaries: Translation history of legal terms in China (2013).
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Communication and culture mediation techniques in jurilinguistics
- Legal translation: A sociosemiotic approach
- Adopting and adapting an international model law in a multilingual and multicultural context
- Sur la jurilinguistique, la traduction, et l’interprétation
- Théorie et pratique de la traduction juridique ou sur les lieux d'une rencontre
- Teaching and learning legal translation
- Making sense in legal translation
- L'évolution conceptuelle dans le langage juridique international ou la traduction d'une nouvelle littéralité
- Chinese translations of legal terms in early modern period: An empirical study of the books compiled/translated by missionaries around the mid-nineteenth century
- A study on the process of legal translation
- Legal translation -- an impossible task?
- The object of fidelity in translating multilingual legislation
- Les phraséologismes verbaux en droit: Une étude de cas à partir du terme responsabilité civile
- A sociosemiotic interpretation of police interrogations
- How disputes are reconciled in a Chinese courtroom setting: From an appraisal perspective
- Courtroom setups in China's criminal trials
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Communication and culture mediation techniques in jurilinguistics
- Legal translation: A sociosemiotic approach
- Adopting and adapting an international model law in a multilingual and multicultural context
- Sur la jurilinguistique, la traduction, et l’interprétation
- Théorie et pratique de la traduction juridique ou sur les lieux d'une rencontre
- Teaching and learning legal translation
- Making sense in legal translation
- L'évolution conceptuelle dans le langage juridique international ou la traduction d'une nouvelle littéralité
- Chinese translations of legal terms in early modern period: An empirical study of the books compiled/translated by missionaries around the mid-nineteenth century
- A study on the process of legal translation
- Legal translation -- an impossible task?
- The object of fidelity in translating multilingual legislation
- Les phraséologismes verbaux en droit: Une étude de cas à partir du terme responsabilité civile
- A sociosemiotic interpretation of police interrogations
- How disputes are reconciled in a Chinese courtroom setting: From an appraisal perspective
- Courtroom setups in China's criminal trials
