Comparative Legilinguistics

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https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/handle/10593/14029

Legilingwistyka Porównawcza jest kwartalnikiem wydawanym przez Instytut Językoznawstwa (Wydział Neofilologii, UAM). Publikowane są w nim artykuły, recenzje i sprawozdania w języku polskim, angielskim, francuskim, hiszpańskim, chińskim oraz rosyjskim. Czasopismo poświęcone jest przede wszystkim legilingiwstyce, językoznawstwu sądowemu, teorii prawa, językom prawnym i prawniczym, a także przekładowi prawniczemu. Artykuły poddawane są recenzji w trybie peer-review przez dwóch niezależnych recenzentów (double-blind review).

Comparative Legilinguistics (International Journal for Legal Communication) is a quarterly published by the Institute of Linguistics (Faculty of Modern Languages and Literature, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland). It contains articles, reviews and reports in Polish, English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian. The journal is devoted mainly to legi-linguistics (legal linguistics), forensic linguistics, theory of the law and legal language, and legal translation. The articles are peer-reviewed by two reviewers (double-blind review).

Redaktor naczelny: Prof. UAM dr hab. Aleksandra Matulewska
Kontakt: Instytut Językoznawstwa Zakład Legilingwistyki i Języków Specjalistycznych
al. Niepodległości 4, pok. 218B
61-874 Poznań, Poland
e-mail: lingua.legis@amu.edu.pl
strona www: http://legilinguistics.amu.edu.pl/
Nazwa wydawcy: Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM
ISSN 2080-5926 e-ISSN 2391-4491

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    A Psycholinguistic Approach to Inmate Argot in Romanian Prisons
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Nădrag, Lavinia; Stroescu, Manuela
    The lexis and structure of prison argot reflect the personalities of inmates who employ them, as well as the conflicts and tensions inherent in prison settings. It is shown in this article that the distinctiveness of prison argot is largely a product of the character of penal context. Its extent of use varies with the extent of penal discipline. Appreciation of this complex relationship might facilitate improved communication between prisoners and custodial authorities. In addition, knowledge of prison argot meanings has a potential to improve the management of prison-based programs and thus appears helpful in the complex process of prisoners' rehabilitation and social reintegration.
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    Achievements of the Plain Swedish Movement from the Polish Perspective
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2009) Hadryan, Milena
    The paper deals with the plain language movement in Sweden from the Polish perspective. Plain Swedish is endorsed by law as an objective of state policy and there is a state body responsible for the quality of public language. The concept of plain language belongs to speech and language planning and is considered to be a central part of Swedish language policy. Polish law only provides protection for the Polish language. As a result, there is neither Polish speech and language planning to promote simple and comprehensible use of official language nor any state body dealing with these issues.
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    Analysis of ‘Classical’ and Legislative Definitions for the Term Records of the Slovak Terminology Database
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2009) Levicka, Jana
    The paper presents a comparative study of „classical“ and legislative definitions referring to the same concept in the field of law, which reveal multidimensional nature of these concepts. The author focuses on one hand on typology of definitions and on the other on their structure, coherence and applicability. The aim is to decide, on the basis of this comparison, which type of defi nition is to be used to represent concepts in the domain of law in the Slovak Terminology Database, addressing not only lawyers but also lay public, so that definitions included in this Database can facilitate and enhance knowledge acquisition.
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    Arabic in Certifi ed Translators’ Work
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2009) Styszyński, Marcin
    The present paper concerns Arabic in certified translators’ work. The paper contains a selection of examples translated from Arabic into Polish from a large domain of translation studies. I would like to underline that the present examples concern Polish language, with the English version not being a primary focus. Th is paper will deal with two important points (i) suitable words which express exact meanings and terms and (ii) the correctness of administrative style in some Arabic documents. The author will also examine the composition of Arabic texts and selection of information during the translation process.
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    Caught in the web of the law: le traducteur juridique face à la métaphore
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Houbert, Frederic
    "Thin skull doctrine", "living tree", "blue-sky law", "clean hands", "cloud on title"… Les métaphores occupent à l'évidence une place centrale dans le vocabulaire juridique anglais. Comment expliquer le succès de cette figure de style dans le langage de la common law? Les métaphores juridiques permettent de rendre accessibles, au moyen d'images évocatrices et familières, des concepts qui, sans elles, resteraient abstraits. C'est là une de leurs fonctions, parmi d'autres que nous nous efforcerons de cerner dans le cadre de la présente communication. Après un rapide survol de deux familles de métaphores particulièrement productives en anglais juridique (les métaphores corporelles et les métaphores «naturelles» au sens large), nous nous interrogerons sur la traduction des métaphores. Nous verrons qu'au-delà de la règle générale (adaptation de la métaphore rendue nécessaire par le degré d'abstraction supérieur du français), d'autres techniques de traduction sont également possibles, dont la traduction littérale. Nous nous pencherons également sur le cas particulier des métaphores «filées», qui peuvent parfois justifier le recours à une traduction littérale.
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    Cognitive Consequences of Translations for Rendering the Modality of Legal Documents (A Semantic Study Based on The Amsterdam Treaty as an Example)
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2009) Wakuła-Kunz, Wanda
    This study aims at examining how the manifestation forms of linguistic modality, which plays a rule-constitutive role in the content of legal documents, may be changed in the process of translation. Basing on the achievements of cognitive linguistics the author tries to find a solution for a proper translation of root and epistemic modals that would serve the same communicative function. In concluding remarks she notices that the role of linguists in solving the problems of the legal world is essential for checking the occurrence of ambiguity in the interpretation of translated texts.
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    Computer Assisted Interpreter Training for Students Who Are Not Foreign Language Majors
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Cheng, Sheng-jie
    The aim of the existing case study was to investigate the implications of applying computers to teaching interpreting to students who were not foreign language majors. Some researchers argued that interpreting courses are very difficult, so they should be offered to qualified post-graduate students instead of undergraduate students. However, most undergraduate programs in Taiwan offer interpretation courses. In addition, in China two-semester interpreter training courses have even been offered to most undergraduate students who were not foreign language majors. Furthermore, computers have been widely used in interpreter training, but no research has been available that investigated how to apply computer assisted interpreter training (CAIT) to teaching interpreting to students who are not foreign language majors. Qualitative research methods have been used to collect and analyze the data to complete the report in this study. Participants consisted of the author and the 18 students, who were not foreign language majors, taking a computer assisted interpreter training course that the author offered in a university in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2009. The results of the study indicated that CAIT may be developed into IM (the interpretation method) of foreign language teaching to teach students who are not foreign language majors.
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    Deontic Modality and Modals in the Language of Contracts
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Matulewska, Aleksandra
    The purpose of this paper is to present most typical methods of expressing deontic modality, namely obligation, prohibition and permission in Polish, American and British contracts. The author has analyzed the corpora of about 45 contracts formulated in British-English, American-English and Polish, namely: (i) deeds of conveyance, (ii) contracts of sale, (iii) contracts of lease, (iv) logistic contracts, (v) deeds of partnership and company-related contracts, (vi) contracts for rendering services and (vii) contracts of employment. After presenting the exponents of deontic modality, the author compiles the results in tables to show potential translative equivalents. The listing of such exponents of modality may serve translation purposes in accordance with textual-normative equivalence (cf. Kierzkowska 2002).
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    Discourse Disfluencies in Bilingual Court Hearings
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2009) Torstenston, Niklas; Gawrońska, Barbara
    In about 9% civil and criminal cases that are settled in Swedish District courts every year, i.e. in roughly 10 000 court hearings, an interpreter is employed when at least one of the involved parties speaks another language than Swedish. In this paper, aspects of interpretation in the courtroom are discussed in general, and examples from court proceedings are used to analyse disfl uent situations. The role of the interpreter is viewed, and compared to that of other participants’ in the discourse. Aspects of legal rights for the individual are discussed in relation to examples from other language communities. The results show that the confusing situations and misinterpretations are not only dependent on the decisions made by the interpreter. Th e attitudes and the linguistic behaviour of all discourse participants may contribute to the disfl uencies.
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    Europejski nakaz aresztowania w Polsce i we Włoszech
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Biernacka-Licznar, Katarzyna
    Europejski Nakaz Aresztowania (ENA) został wprowadzony w Polsce w 2004 roku, z chwilą przystąpienia naszego kraju do Unii Europejskiej. Podstawowym zadaniem ENA było uproszczenie i usprawnienie systemu przekazywania osób dzięki pominięciu złożonych procedur ekstradycyjnych pomiędzy państwami należącymi do Unii Europejskiej. Celem artykułu jest wskazanie różnic w terminologii polskiej dotyczących listy 32 przestępstw objętych ENA, zaprezentowanie listy 32 kategorii przestępstw objętych ENA dla pary językowej: polski i włoski oraz pojawiających się trudności terminologicznych w przypadku tłumaczenia ENA. W artykule przedstawiono także częstotliwość stosowania ENA przez polskie sądy w latach 2006–2008, jak również zaprezentowano trudności związane z inkorporowaniem przepisów Decyzji Ramowej z 2002 roku dotyczących ENA we Włoszech.
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    Features of English Legal Discourse
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) El-Farahaty, Hanem
    This paper discusses the common lexical and grammatical features of legal discourse in English and Arabic. The rationale behind this analysis is to compare and contrast the discourse of both languages, list the similarities and differences between them and come up with the most problematic areas in legal translation. It is worth mentioning that features of Arabic legal discourse have not been researched before, thus, I have taken the features of legal English as headlights according to which I will analyze the corpus of Arabic legal documents. These features, however, are not specific to one particular type of written language of the law. By type of language is meant the different types of legal texts such as legislations, contracts, official documents, court proceedings, etc. For this purpose, authentic samples of different English and Arabic legal documents have been consulted. These texts, obtained from law professionals, include private legal documents such as tenancy agreements, employment contracts, correspondences between solicitors and clients, reports to the court, birth certificates, and marriage certificates. Other documents include selected legislative and international documents. To this effect, the United Nations (UN) website, other translation books such as Mansoor (1965), Hatim, Shunnaq and Buckley (1995) are consulted.
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    German legal terminology in the area of higher education – between national varieties and the use of English
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Wissik, Tanja
    This paper investigates German legal terminology in the area of higher education in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Particular emphasis is put on the influence of English in this field arising from internationalization and the creation of the European Higher Education Area. One can assume that due to the Bologna Process – initiated on the European level with the aim of creating more comparable, compatible and coherent higher education systems – there is a wider use of English terminology than before in the field of higher education. German legal and administrative language employed in the higher education sector in the aforementioned countries has been analysed within the framework of this study with the help of comparable specialized corpora of university legislative texts. In addition, a reference corpus of international legal texts dealing with the same topic has been employed. The analysis will endeavour to establish to what extent English terminology is being used.
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    Interpretation of Legal Texts by Translators. Imperative, Prohibitive and Empowering Clauses in Polish, Hungarian and English Legal Language
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2009) Kaczmarek, Karolina
    This article presents research on written legal texts with a focus on the cohesion of such texts by analyzing the function of lexical repetition. Th e author indicates the possibility of using Hoey and Károly’s method of researching repetition patterns in texts in the process of translating Polish and Hungarian legal texts. In this analysis Polish, and Hungarian contract texts serve as a search base. Because contracts in both languages are structured into similar units, so called clauses, the author chose it for a base category of analysis. Th e author used three structures to search for lexical repetitions: intrasentential, intersentential and discourse structure. Because of the specific genre, contract clauses were used for analysis instead of popular linguistic units such as the sentence. Therefore, the discussion here concerns intra-clausulal, inter-clausulal or legal discourse structures. Th e author states that the number and quality of repetition in Polish and Hungarian contracts is comparable. However, the number of lexical repetition appear to be smaller in Hungarian texts.
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    Interpreters in the Courtroom: the Importance of Competence and Quality
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Kościałkowska-Okońska, Ewa
    Court interpreting is becoming an increasingly important issue in Translation Studies and interpreting research. The article will be devoted to the analysis of the concepts of competence and quality and their manifestation in the court interpreter‘s work. It is assumed that the interpreter‘s competence is accomplished in three basic fields, i.e., linguistic (embracing the perfect command of the mother tongue and the foreign language), cultural (knowledge on two cultural realities) and cognitive (combining such cognitive factors as intelligence, experience, general knowledge or motivation). Quality is the concept in interpreting closely related with successful performance and communication (with all its aspects). The attempt at quality description, apart from subjective impressions resulting from our understanding of the importance of features that good – competent – translation and effective communication should have, cannot be devoid of focusing on three principal factors, i.e., the interpreter (as the text author/ producer), interpreting process and product, which is the result of this process and involvement (and competence) on the part of the interpreter. All the above aspects pose a real challenge for the court interpreter.
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    Języki prawa w państwie polsko-litewskim (od XVI do XVIII wieku) z perspektywy komunikacji międzykulturowej i praktyk translatorskich
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Szczepankowska, Irena
    W okresie od XVI do XVIII wieku Polska (wówczas Królestwo Polskie) była połączona unią polityczną z Litwą (tj. Wielkim Księstwem Litewskim), tworząc państwo nazywane "Rzeczpospolitą Obojga Narodów". W rzeczywistości państwo to jednoczyło na swoim terytorium wiele grup ludności o różnym statusie społecznym, narodowościowym i wyznaniowym; mówiących rozmaitymi językami. Społeczności te rządziły się zróżnicowanymi systemami prawa zwyczajowego oraz regulacjami pochodzącymi od feudalnych władców, zapisanymi w licznych "przywilejach" grupowych i indywidualnych. Podczas długiego procesu (zapoczątkowanego już w XIV wieku) tworzenia unii narodów oraz ewolucji ustroju politycznego, zmierzającej do ukonstytuowania tzw. republiki szlacheckiej, musiały ulec zniwelowaniu istotne odmienności lokalne w sferze kultury prawnej. Ważnym czynnikiem łagodzenia procesów unifikacji norm i instytucji prawnych oraz uzyskiwania dla nich społecznej akceptacji było jednakże respektowanie pewnych różnic kulturowych, a zwłaszcza przywiązania obywateli do określonego kodu językowego, w którym formułowano wypowiedzi oficjalne. Intensywne działania kodyfikacyjne wymagały szczególnej wrażliwości ze strony rządzących, a także kompetencji elit kulturalnych w rozwiązywaniu problemów natury komunikacyjnej i translatorskiej. Celem autorki jest przedstawienie tej skomplikowanej sytuacji językowej w kontekście kształtującej się wówczas – także pod wpływem ogólnoeuropejskich dążeń kodyfikacyjnych – kultury prawnej, która zakorzeniła się w świadomości i codziennej praktyce mieszkańców Rzeczpospolitej polsko-litewskiej Jest też fenomenem historycznym wartym zainteresowania z punktu widzenia współczesnych dążeń i problemów wielonarodowej wspólnoty europejskiej.
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    Kann Man Rechtstexte kulturell einbetten?
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Kocbek, Alenka
    In many aspects, legal translation seems to be an adequate domain for applying the principles of the functionalist approaches to translation, especially the skopos-theory by J. H. Vermeer. Nevertheless, an indiscriminate application of the principle of cultural embeddedness could prove questionable, if not misleading, as it may cause disturbance in the legal communication occurring through the translation act. In some legal transactions, such as e.g. international contracts, involving contracting parties belonging to different nations, only one legal system is adopted as the communication framework (i.e. the governing or applicable law). In such cases, the functionalist principle of cultural embeddedness needs to be applied selectively, i.e. only with respect to some linguistic features of the text, while in a broader sense, as far as the cultural and/or legal foundations of the text are concerned, the source and the target text will have the same reference frame.
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    Latin Legal Terminology in Estonia
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2009) Ristikivi, Marike
    The article examines the use of Latin in contemporary legal texts and its impact on terminology. The terminology analysed in the article comprises the terms collected from the Estonian juridical periodicals. Attention is paid to the following topics: average size of the vocabulary of the Estonian lawyer; the most frequent Latin terms and phrases; context of Latin terms and phrases; main problems and errors in the use of Latin.
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    Legal Linguistics No Longer Neglected: review of Legal Linguistics by Marcus Galdia
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Matulewska, Aleksandra
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    Legal Reasonableness and the Need for a Linguistic Approach in Comparative Constitutional Law
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Pennicino, Sara
    The paper focuses on the concept of reasonableness in several countries, in particular, comparing common and civil law systems. More specifically, it refers to the use of this word in the discourse of the judiciary and especially in the context of constitutional law. In the latter context reasonableness plays a crucial role in conveying values and thus construing "different" constitutionalisms; in fact it enhances the dynamics of the constitutional framework, while leaving the Constitution unaltered. Up to now, constitutional scholarship has devoted attention to the issue of reasonableness as a tool of adjudication (i.e. by including it in the wider framework of scrutiny techniques, such as strict scrutiny versus proportionality). On the contrary, the underlying hypothesis of this paper is that a solid linguistic approach will enhance the understanding of the role reasonableness plays as the quest for minima moralia in constitutional law.
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    Legal Speech Acts in a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective – Focus on Modality
    (Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2009) Witczak-Plisiecka, Iwona
    The paper involves three main fields of linguistic analysis: the pragmatic theory of speech acts, cognitive linguistics and legal language. Its main aim is to demonstrate the relevance of the cognitive framework to the analysis of speech acts and especially the deontic use of the modal verb shall in the legal context. The focus is on the use of the modal, which is mainly used to impose obligations or to confer rights. Thus, its meaning seems to be in most cases a combination of both assertive and directive illocutionary forces when approached from a pragmatic perspective, and a combination of deonticity with futurity and prediction in traditional grammar terminology. The discussion is illustrated with a variety of examples retrieved from a corpus of legal documents drafted in English and translated into Polish. It is argued that the meaning of most instances of shall in the legal domain, due to its context-sensitivity, can be best accounted for in terms of a cognitive blend, which integrates various aspects of its meaning. Th ese aspects are believed to be inherently vague and possibly an instance of ongoing processes of grammaticalisation, which can only be grasped with reference to the context of a particular expression, thus pragmatic in nature.