Arabic-English-Arabic Legal Translation

191 Pages·2014·1.56 MB·English

by  Hanem El-Farahaty

Arabic–English–Arabic Legal
Translation
Arabic–English–Arabic Legal Translation provides a groundbreaking investigation of the
issues found in legal translation between Arabic and English. Drawing on a contrastive–
comparative approach, it analyses parallel authentic legal documents in both Arabic and
English to examine the features of legal discourse in both languages and uncover the different
translation techniques used. In so doing, it addresses the following questions:
• What are the features of English and Arabic legal texts?
• What are the similarities and differences of English and Arabic legal texts?
• What are the difficult areas of legal translation between English and Arabic legal texts?
• What are the techniques for translating these difficult areas on the lexical and syntactic
levels?
Features include:
• a thorough description of the features of legal translation in both English and Arabic,
drawing on new empirical research, corpus data analysis and strategic two- way com -
parisons between source texts and target texts
• coverage of a broad range of topics including an outline of the chosen framework for
data analysis, a historical survey of legal discourse developments in both Arabic and
English and detailed analyses of legal literature at both the lexical and syntactic levels
• attention to common areas of difficulty such as Shariʿah Law terms, archaic terms and
model auxiliaries
• many examples and excerpts from a wide selection of authentic legal documents, re -
inforced by practical discussion points, exercises and practice drills to encourage active
engagement with the material and opportunities for hands-o n learning.
Wide- ranging, scholarly and thought- provoking, this will be a valuable resource for advanced
undergraduates and postgraduates on Arabic, translation studies and comparative linguistics
courses. It will also be essential reading for translation professionals and researchers working
in the field.
Hanem El-Farahaty is Teaching Fellow in the Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern
Studies at the University of Leeds, UK, and an Associate of the Higher Education Academy.
She is also a Lecturer in the University of Mansoura, Egypt.
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Arabic–English–Arabic Legal
Translation
Hanem El-Farahaty
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Hanem El-Farahaty
The right of Hanem El-Farahaty to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-415-70752-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-70753-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74589-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
To My Family
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Contents
List of figures xi
List of tables xii
List of abbreviations xiii
Acknowledgments xiv
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Aims of the book 1
1.2 Hypothesis and research questions 1
1.3 Research on the problems of legal translation: a brief review 2
1.4 Methodology 3
1.5 Data analysis 3
1.6 Structure of the book 3
2 English and Arabic legal discourse and legal translation 6
2.1 Introduction 6
2.2 What is legal translation? 6
2.3 Historical background of legal discourse and legal translation in the
English tradition 6
2.4 Historical background of legal discourse and legal translation in the
Arabic tradition 8
2.5 Categories of legal translation 11
2.5.1 Legal translation with respect to functions of legal discourse 11
2.5.2 Legal translation with respect to categories of legal discourse 12
2.6 Approaches to legal translation: a brief review of translation theory 15
3 Features of English and Arabic legal discourse 20
3.1 Introduction 20
3.2 Features of English legal discourse 20
3.2.1 Lexical features 20
3.2.1.1 Archaic terms 21
3.2.1.2 Latin and French terms 21
3.2.1.3 Formal terms 22
3.2.1.4 Religious, culture- specific and system-b ased lexis 22
3.2.1.5 Other lexical features 22
3.2.2 Syntactic features 23
3.2.2.1 Nominalization 23
viii Contents
3.2.2.2 Passivization 23
3.2.2.3 Wh- deletion 24
3.2.2.4 Conditionals, prepositional phrases and restrictive
connectors 24
3.2.2.5 Complex sentences 24
3.2.2.6 Performative verbs and modals 25
3.2.2.7 The use of negation 28
3.2.2.8 Binomial expressions/doublets and triplets 28
3.2.3 Textual features 29
3.2.3.1 Elements of cohesion 29
3.3 Features of Arabic legal discourse 31
3.3.1 Introduction 31
3.3.2 Lexical features 31
3.3.2.1 Religious, culture- specific and system- based terms
and expressions 34
3.3.2.2 Formality 35
3.3.2.3 Gender- biased terms 37
3.3.2.4 Archaic terms 40
3.3.3 Syntactic features 40
3.3.3.1 Nominalization 40
3.3.3.2 Passivization 41
3.3.3.3 Modals 42
3.3.3.4 Complex sentence structure 42
3.3.3.5 Doublets and triplets 43
3.3.3.6 Participles 43
3.3.4 Textual features 44
3.3.4.1 Lexical repetition 45
3.3.4.2 Reference 50
3.3.4.3 Conjunctions and punctuation 51
3.4 Exercises and discussions: features of legal English and legal Arabic 52
4 Framework for data analysis 59
4.1 Introduction 59
4.2 Vinay and Darbelnet’s model 59
4.2.1 Direct translation 59
4.2.1.1 Borrowing 60
4.2.1.2 Calque 60
4.2.1.3 Literal translation 60
4.2.2 Oblique translation 61
4.2.2.1 Transposition 61
4.2.2.2 Modulation 61
4.2.2.3 Equivalence 62
4.2.2.4 Adaptation 62
4.3 Alcaraz Varó and Hughes’ techniques of adaptation 62
4.3.1 Transposition 63
4.3.2 Expansion 63
4.3.3 Modulation 63
Contents ix
4.4 Baker’s levels of equivalence 63
4.4.1 Equivalence at word level and above word level 63
4.4.2 Grammatical equivalence 65
4.4.3 Textual equivalence 65
4.5 Methodology 65
4.5.1 The lexical level 66
4.5.2 The syntactic level 66
4.5.2.1 Modal auxiliaries in English and Arabic 66
4.5.2.2 Modal auxiliaries in English 66
4.5.2.3 Modal auxiliaries in Arabic 69
4.5.2.4 Passivization in English and Arabic 71
4.5.3 Addition and omission 75
4.6 List of documents for data analysis 75
4.6.1 English–Arabic documents 76
4.6.2 Arabic–English documents 76
5 Analysis of Arabic–English–Arabic texts: the lexical level 78
5.1 Introduction 78
5.2 Analysis of religious, culture- specific and system- based terms and
phrases in Arabic–English official and legislative documents 78
5.2.1 Quantitative analysis of religious, culture- specific and system- based
terms and phrases 78
5.2.2 Qualitative analysis of religious, culture- specific and system- based
terms and phrases 79
5.2.2.1 Reference to God 79
5.2.2.2 Religious terms and concepts 81
5.3 Religious, culture-s pecific and system- based terms and phrases in
Arabic–English international documents 87
5.3.1 Quantitative analysis of religious, culture- specific and
system- based terms and phrases in the UIDHR 88
5.3.2 Qualitative analysis of the frequency of techniques of
translating culture- specific and system- based terms and
phrases in the UIDHR 89
5.3.2.1 Translation by ‘omission’ 89
5.3.2.2 Translation by ‘adaptation’ 90
5.3.2.3 Translation by both ‘literal’ translation and ‘borrowing’ 91
5.3.2.4 Translation by ‘addition’ 93
5.4 Analysis of English–Arabic system- based and culture- specific terms 95
5.4.1 A note on the concept of civil partnership 95
5.4.2 Quantitative analysis of English–Arabic culture-s pecific
system- based terms and phrases 95
5.4.3 Qualitative analysis of English–Arabic system- based and
culture- specific terms 96
5.5 Analysis of archaic terms in Arabic–English documents 100
5.5.1 Translation of archaic terms in Arabic–English official documents 100
5.6 Analysis of archaic terms in English–Arabic documents 102
5.7 Exercises and discussions 104