Influence of thinking modes on legal translation

1、influence of thinking modes on legal translationabstract: in such an epoch when economic globalization becomes a trend，legal translation is viewed as one of the most significant factors that motivated the progress of our countrymeanwhile，as a special variety of english，legal english is more typical

2、of logicality than literary languageso in legal english translation, the translator is required to mainly adopt the different thinking mode, the conversion of thinking mode, a science to study the rules，forms and methods of thinking，monitors the whole process of translationthus under the guidance of

3、 thinking mode application，the development of legal translation theory and practice will be stimulatedfurthermore，the successful utility of different thinking mode will improve the quality of translationstarting with the analysis of the characteristics of legal english，the author tries to probe into

4、 the study of thinking pattern in translating legal language from english to chinesemoreover, higher requirements are set forth for legal translator.key words：legal translation，thinking mode, 摘要: 經(jīng)濟(jì)全球化已經(jīng)成為當(dāng)今社會(huì)的發(fā)展趨勢(shì)。隨著各國對(duì)外交往的日益頻繁，法律翻譯已成為促進(jìn)國家進(jìn)步和實(shí)現(xiàn)社會(huì)繁榮的重要因素。同時(shí)，法律英語作為一種特殊文體，比文學(xué)語言具有更顯著的邏輯思維特征。從思維的角度看，研究思

5、維的規(guī)律、形式和方法的科學(xué)，指導(dǎo)并規(guī)約著翻譯的全過程。在思維方式的指導(dǎo)下進(jìn)行翻譯將會(huì)促進(jìn)法律翻譯理論及其翻譯實(shí)踐的發(fā)展，而正確的利用思維方式的轉(zhuǎn)換也會(huì)大大提高法律翻譯的質(zhì)量。本文從法律英語語言特點(diǎn)分析出發(fā)，就思維方式的相關(guān)理論在法律英語漢譯過程中的運(yùn)用進(jìn)行了探討。同時(shí)，思維的運(yùn)用對(duì)譯者也提出了更高的要求：譯者不僅需不斷提高邏輯思維能力，還應(yīng)具備深厚的雙語功底以及豐富的法律知識(shí)。關(guān)鍵詞：法律英語翻譯，思維模式contents1. introduction2a general survey of legal english translation2.1 introduction to legal

6、english2.2 the characteristics of legal english2.3 review of legal translation study2.3.1 translation of chinese legal system2.3.2 translation of western legal system3. relations between thinking mode and translation3.1 intuitional thinking and rational thinking3.2 chinese thinking makes point on en

7、tirety and western4. the difference between chinese and english thinking mode on legal translation 4.1. the aspect of choosing vocabulary4.2. the aspect of tense and voice4.3 the aspect of using long sentence4.4 the aspect of the structure of context5. solution to translation difficulty5.1 mastery o

8、f english and chinese5.2 familiarization of legal knowledge5.3 the application of the conversion6. conclusionbibliographyacknowledgments 1. introductionin the history of human civilization，legal translation，as a sort of special-purpose translation，can date back to the very ancient times，and it playe

9、d an essential role in the development of human civilizationin modern times，with the rapid development of science and technology, the tendency of globalization promotes the developing intercultural communication between different nationslaw, as an efficient tool to solve such troubles，has an increas

10、ing effect and influence to peoples life. so legal translation becomes an emergent task for the international societygenerally speaking，translation can be defined as “a process converting the sign of one language into that of another. however it is also a process of transformation of thought on the

11、ground that language is ruled by thought and that it is the external manifestation of thoughtin one of the most influential papers thinking problems in translation，mrdong shiliang points out that the deep study of thinking activities in translation is bound to be a breakthrough of translation studyt

12、he task of translation study is to study the inner law or thinking method of translationin translating，thought is undoubtedly required to be correct and logic is one of the means to guide correct thinking，thus it is of great importance to apply logic to translationthus in the translation practice an

13、d theory, the logical thinking research can explain the phenomenon appeared in the translation and benefit the translation practice2. a general survey of legal english translation2.1 introduction to legal englishlegal english is the language used by law practitioners and jurists of common law system

14、 in the countries whose official language is englishit is the social functional variety of englishto have a comprehensive understanding of legal english，law and its function should be first taken into considerationthere are a great number of different definitions of law although all these definition

15、s vary in their details， they all claim that the function of law is to keep order and to settle disputes，to impose obligations and to confer rightsso we can see that the basic purpose of law in our society is to maintain order and to resolve disputesin this sense，the law is not only a set of rules b

16、ut also it is employed to impose responsibility and to enforce social justicelaw can also guarantee the stability and peace of the society. law language should be as accurate as possibleambiguity should be avoidedspecial style of legal language is thus formed，which is reflected in its lexicon, phras

17、es，sentences and textual organizations of the passages2.2 the characteristics of legal englishlegal english as language for special purpose must be precise，concise and solemnin order to handle legal translation，a translator shall acquaint himselfherself with the features of legal english in the firs

18、t placeto this end，it is necessary to gain an insight into legal english from the lexical，syntactical and textual perspectives, which originated from verbs，egfailure , waiver, exercise and breachthe example explains how nominal structure functions as a phrasal verb and creates simplicity and strictn

19、ess2.3 review of legal translation studyas all essential component of economic and cultural communication and one of the most significant factors that motivated social development，legal translation enjoys a very long history in west as well as in china2.3.1 translation of chinese legal systemthe int

20、roduction of western legal culture to china was implemented after the introduction of the geography and history of the world and westerners translation took the lead in the initial period of introduction of western legal culture to chinaafter opium wars，with a well understanding of a chinese idiom “

21、know the enemy and know yourself，and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat，some open-minded chinese started on the translation and dissemination of the western legal culturelin zexu was the first chinese at that time that organized people to collect and make use of foreign informa

22、tion that influenced the reformers in following generations and was honored the first one in china who opened his mind to the outside worldhe organized the translation of laws of nations which no doubt did a favor for his foreign affairs and provided chinese with firsthand material about modem weste

23、rn lawin his letter to british queen，he protested against britains selling opium to china by stating the fact that opium was prohibited in britain in 1 862，the renowned capital translation school was set up in beijinginitiated for mere english translation，by 1 896，the school had been well developed

24、and was able to translate texts in several main languages such as french，russian，german and japaneseone of its achievements was the translation of henry wheatons elements of international law which was organized by william ap martinit played an active and constructive role in the understanding of fo

25、reign countries，in the reform of feudal society,and made a brilliant contribution to the establishment of modern legal structure of chinaafter the sino-japanese war of 1 894，chinese reformers realized that it was imperative to change the status quothey spared no efforts to enforce their reforms amon

26、g which the most influential measure was their translation of books on western law or jurisprudenceyan fu，one of the pioneers，not only introduced westem new theories to chinese by means of his translation，but also proposed the three principles of translation which practically set the perimeters for

27、present-day discussions on translation in chinahis three principles：faithfulness，expressiveness and elegance were accepted as the essential criteria used to evaluate translation ever since their appearance in yans preface to his own translation of thhuxleys evolution and ethics. among his translatio

28、ns，one of the most worth mentioning is lesprit des lois written by french thinker montesquieu，which helped chinese understand the western democratic politicseven some important thoughts in chinese constitutions civil law and criminal law during the republic of china era originated from yan fus trans

29、lationas a result，the late qing government began its large-scale introduction of western legal systems for the sake of survival. due to the fact that most missionaries then were from britain and the united states, the legal cultures imposed into china was mainly about these two countries though lega

30、l cultures of other countries as germany, france and japan were also introducedafter the foundation of new china，especially since 1 978，a brand new leaf of legal translation was turned overnot only have more and more foreign laws and legal literatures been introduced into china，but also many chinese

31、 laws and legal literatures by chinese scholars have been translated into foreign languages. at present，countless papers on legal translation are published annually, and legal translations follow the steps of almost every new law and the relevant international exchanges are unprecedentedly activeit

32、can be said that the cause of legal translation has reached a peak in history2.3.2 translation of western legal systemthe oldest known recorded evidence of legal translation is the egyptianhittite peace treaty of 1 27 1 bcwhich can be dated back to the wars between egypt and mesopotamia，the two domi

33、nant rivals of the early eurasian worldtwo versions of the treaty were discovered，one in hieroglyphic inscriptions in several egyptian temples and other in cuneiform characters inscribed on tablets unearthed in hittite capital of bogazkoyboth are believed to be translations；however, the original was

34、 never found(sarcevic，1 997：23) in the middle ages，latin was both the dominant language of international law and the principal diplomatic language；but later, its hegemony was challenged by the national languages of the new prestigious western states，especially francesince then the translations among

35、 these national languages became the mainstreamthere are several legal translations that are of epochmaking significance：the translation of code napoleon of 1 804 from french to german in early 1800s，the translation of austrian civil code of 1811 from german to ten languages such as italian，polish，r

36、ussian，serbian，and sloveniannowadays，as un plays a more and more important role in the international affairs，the translation of un charter of 1 945 from english to the main national languages all over the world also contributes a lot to legal translationhence，it can be said that the development of l

37、egal translation reflects the progress of human society to certain degree3. relations between thinking mode and translationlanguage is the carrier of thought. peoples way of expressing is greatly influenced by their own thinking pattern and they use language to express their own thoughts, to communi

38、cate each other and to explore and learn the world, therefore, language not only embodies peoples concept on valuation, aesthetics, morality, etiquette and custom, but also embodies the way people think and what they think about the objective world. different people have different thinking pattern b

39、ecause of different environment, culture, custom and hereditary genes3.1 intuitional thinking and rational thinking.the way chinese people think indicates a specific predisposition which means that they usually try to use sentences or phrases describing shape impression and sound to convey their tho

40、ughts and information. analyzing from language structure, parataxis is used to enrich the content of the words, and thus the words are more vivid and intuitional. the thoughts of chinese classic poems are conveyed through various specific and vivid images. on the other hand, western culture is a kin

41、d of rational culture, in its nature, and rationalism is not only its persistent convention, but also an important feature. this rationalism showed in thinking is that western people trend to inference and logic. western philosophy art, and thinking emphasize natural time and space, especially the e

42、xistence of natural space. differences between chinese and western thinking greatly affect the use of different languages, such as propaganda in advertisement, in chinese the product well be given a specific and vivid name through meaning and sound, while for a western product, its name is just give

43、n in abstract letters.3.2 chinese thinking makes point on entirety and westernthinking emphasizes analysis. chinese traditional philosopher is used to recognize an object in a comprehensive way, which is closely related to the chinese culture that has connection with god, nature and human being. thi

44、s study is never conducted independently, on the contrary it is often integrates human life, society and nature. for example, chinese character 益is made up by 水(water) and 皿(pot), and the phrase means water overflowing from the pot. this unique way of forming characters just reflects one of the feat

45、ures of chinese thinking pattern which stresses intuition and integration. western thinking is analytic. western people are accustomed to analyze an entirety when pondering over the natural society, and in their eyes, the natural world, society and individual are utterly diverse subjects and objects

46、 that can be distinguished. comparing from linguistic angle, chinese bears ambiguity implication and parataxis, but english makes a perfect linguistic morphology and hypotaxis through using grammar and conjunction to organize sentences. 4. the difference between chinese and english thinking mode on

47、legal translation owing to living in different culture, there is great difference between chinese and western thinking mode and this kind of difference has much effect on translation of legal documents, for example, vocabulary, the structure of sentences as well as the tense and voice.4.1 the aspect

48、 of choosing vocabularytranslation is a re-creative activity to search the mean of the equivalent words in the target language text with the transformation of the semantic information, style information and cultural information. for chinese and western thinking way has greatly difference, the struct

49、ure of language and the structure of the context are also different. in chinese language, the same meaning often uses one word or one phrase to express instead of two, thinking that it is too burdensome then try to avoid the situation. while in the western legal translation, synonymous are used quit

50、e often and the application of synonyms is a feature in the legal translation. for example, “for and in consideration of mutual covenants and agreements contained herein, the parties hereby covenant and agree as follows”this sentence is short, but there appear three groups of synonyms. “for and in c

51、onsideration of ”, “covenants and agreements”, “covenant and agree” in legal english , there are many synonyms in order to reject loopholes because of the ambiguity of english words. 4.2. the aspect of tense and voicewe chinese are likely to use active sentences generally in speaking and writing pap

52、ers. passive voice is not commonly used. it is relevant to chinese intuition thinking mode. but western people attend to use passive sentences, because they pay more attention to the logic and analysis. in english law, the passive voice is used widely. for example,“any payments made to an officer or

53、 employee of the corporation such as a salary, commission, bonus, interest, rent, travel or entertainment expense incurred by him, which shall be disallowed in whole or in part as a deductible expense by the internal revenue service, shall be reimbursed by such officer or employee to the corporation

54、 to the full extent of such disallowance”in this sentence, “made to an officer or employee of the corporation” and “incurred by him” are the rear attributive passive phrases. however “shall be disallowed”, “shall be reimbursed” will be translated in active voice in chinese legal translation.there is

55、 a comparison of chinese and english legal translation. the first sentence “if one party receives a proposal in paragraph 1 within 30 days, the parties can not agree on the choice of a sole arbitrator, the appointing authority shall appoint the sole arbitrator.” the second sentence “if within thirty

56、 days after receipt by a party of a proposal made in accordance with paragraph 1, the parties have not reached agreement on the choice of a sole arbitrator, the sole arbitrator shall be appointed by the appointing authority agreed by the parties.” the two sentences are similar, but we can know the s

57、econd one is english thinking mode. 4.3 the aspect of using long sentencedifferent thinking mode of chinese and english is embodied on more complex performance of long sentencesin chinese, we generally like to put our views, judgments or corollaries at the end of the sentence, because the part of th

58、e last sentence can deepen our impression strongly. while in english, they put the emphasis, main sentences or the main clause in the beginning of the sentence. for example, there is an arbitration clause in accordance with the chinese way of thinking, we will say “if the breach or alleged breach oc

59、curs to one party more than one year, the dispute shall not be submitted to arbitration, and both parties shall not act against the other.” the structure of such legal translation is loose, and the logic is not obvious. it doesnt seem like the tone of the legal language and the ambiguity is easy to misunderstand. according to western way of