交际论视角下的法律文本英译的研究 ——关于中国合同法英译的个案研究

论文摘要

随着改革开放的深化与经济的发展,尤其是中国加入世界贸易组织以来,中国法律文本的英译在我国对外贸易、国际交流以及对外法律交流等活动中发挥了越来越重要的作用。传统上,翻译被人们视为一个语言的转换代码的过程,因此保留原文的意义历来是翻译的主要目标,法律翻译者也一直受限于忠实于原文这一传统原则,在此原则下,译者失去了决策的权力,其中心任务即是复制原文的意义。而根据Susan (?)ar(?)evi(?)的观点,法律翻译研究的侧重点发生了一系列变化,翻译从单纯的文本转换到法律机制中的交际行为((?)ar(?)evi(?), 1997, p. 55),译者被赋予了决策的权力,在有多种因素交织的交际过程中扮演了积极重要的角色;这一观点解放了译者,使他们也成为文本创作者,能够根据不同的交际情景、采取各种翻译策略创作新的文本((?)ar(?)evi(?) 1997,p. 18)。根据这种观点,即使译者无法复制出原文的意义,却可以创造一个功能大体近似的文本,即创造出具有同样司法效果的法律文本。本文根据(?)ar(?)evi(?)的交际功能论,探讨在中国与世界的法律交流日益频繁的背景下,中国法律文本英译的目标、读者对象、地位等交际环境的改变及其重新定位,并指出法律法规翻译存在的困难和问题,据此提出在新的交际情景下法律翻译的总体原则:以达到一致的法律效力为目标,关照目标法律系统的现状,重视目标语接受者,尽量遵从法律英语的表达规范以及翻译策略创新。本文尝试以中国合同法的英文译本作为个案研究对象,指出其翻译的功能、读者对象(即译本接受者)、地位等交际环境的改变及其对翻译原则、策略的影响,并具体分析现有译文在传统的英译原则指导下,在概念、术语、尤其是在篇章结构及风格等语言方面存在的问题,并参照法律法规翻译的总体原则提出一些具体的翻译策略,同时考察在交际论基础上提出的以接受者为中心的翻译原则及策略在改善合同法译文方面的适用性及有效性。本文主要以法律规范性文本(或称立法性文本)为研究对象,因此选取中华人民共和国合同法的英译作为样本进行个案研究,并将运用语篇分析和语言对比研究等手段进行文本分析。所选译文大部分出自由中国法制出版社、外文出版社出版的合同法英文版以及孙万彪所编《汉英法律翻译教程》。为探讨目标语所在法系的特点及与国际条约、惯例的一致的要求,本文将《国际货物销售公约》作为参照文本用于与合同法的对比研究。

论文目录

• 摘要
• Abstract
• Chapter One Introduction
• 1.1 Purpose of this study
• 1.2 Significance of the study
• 1.3 Structure of the thesis
• Chapter Two Literature Review
• 2.1 Relevant Studies in China
• 2.2 Relevant studies abroad
• 2.3 The gap of legal text translation studies
• Chapter Three Sarcevic’s Communicative Approaches to Legal Translation
• 3.1 Legal translation：An act of communication within the mechanism of law
• 3.2 The new role of legal translator
• 3.3 The goal of legal translation
• 3.4 Function and receivers of legal translation
• 3.5 The status of the legal translations
• Chapter Four Principles for Chinese-English Legal Translation from the Perspective of Communicative Approach
• 4.1 The changing situation and difficulties of Chinese English legal translation
• 4.1.1 Function identification of C-E legal translation
• 4.1.2 Receiver of C-E legal translation
• 4.1.3 Status and role of C-E legal translation
• 4.1.4 Tasks and difficulties in C-E legal translation
• 4.2 Principles for Chinese-English legal text translation
• 4.2.1 Targeting the achievement of equal legal effects
• 4.2.2 Considering the status quo of target legal system
• 4.2.3 Focusing on reception of target readers
• 4.2.4 Obeying the expressive rules of legal English
• 4.2.5 Being creative in translation strategies
• Chapter Five Case Study: Translation of Contract Law of the PRC
• 5.1 The Situation of the Translation of the Contract Law
• 5.1.1 A Brief Introduction to Contract Law of China
• 5.1.2 Re-Identification of the Function of the Translation of Contract Law of China
• 5.1.3 Re-identification of the Receiver of the Translation of Contract Law of China
• 5.1.4 The Changing Role of the Translation of Contract Law of China
• 5.2 Existing Problems of Current Translations of Contract Law of China
• 5.2.1 Sources of Problems
• 5.2.2 Legal Lexical Problems
• 5.2.3 Syntactic and Textual Problems
• 5.2.4 Stylistic Problems
• 5.2.5 Consequences of the Problems from the Communicative Perspective
• 5.3 Translation Strategies of Contract Law of China from the Perspective of Communicative Approach
• 5.3.1 Keeping Logic Order and Coherence of Legal Text to Guarantee Equal Legal Effect
• 5.3.2 Using Standardized Expressions to Be Consistent With International Treaties and Practice
• 5.3.3 Using the Sentence Patterns of Legal English to Meet the Expectation of Receivers
• 5.3.4 Keeping Adequate Style Comply With Expressive Rules of Legal English
• 5.3.5 Being Creative in Sentence Forms
• Chapter Six Conclusion
• 6.1 Major findings
• 6.2 Limitation and suggestion for further researches
• Acknowledgement
• Notes
• References
• Appendix