Legal Translation Instruction at Discourse Level and the Problem of Equivalence

Abstract

Legal translation is often claimed to be one of the most difficult types of technical translation. The difficulty may partly be due to the characteristic features of legal discourse which is typically archaic, obscure, complex, and culturally-bound, different linguistic systems, and the type of equivalence the legal translator seeks to achieve; and partly be due to the item-centered approach commonly used in teaching legal translation which emphasizes word-for-word equivalence. The present paper introduces a discourse-oriented approach as an alternative to the currently-used method of teaching legal translation in Iraqi universities. The major argument is that teaching legal translation at discourse level helps the students of translation to recognize the lexical, grammatical, pragmatic, and stylistic dimensions of the legal text which are essential for providing appropriate legal equivalence.

Keywords: legal translation, legal equivalence, translation instruction, discourse-oriented approach, characteristics of legal discourse

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-17-03

Publication date:June 30th 2020