Comparative Legilinguistics, 2010, vol. 02
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Item Multilingualism in EU Law: How Promulgation Authenticates Equality(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Felici, AnnaritaIl diritto europeo è in vigore nei 27 stati membri dell'Unione ed è disponibile in 23 lingue, tutte facenti ugualmente fede. Ciò è possibile grazie al DGT (Directorate General Translation) che vanta uno dei maggiori servizi di traduzione del mondo, ma da un punto di vista legale, la traduzione rimane un puro mezzo, istituzionalmente "inesistente". La problematica ha ricevuto negli ultimi due decenni, considerevole attenzione da parte di ricercatori, linguisti e traduttori (Correia 2003, Kjær 1999, Koskinen 2000, Ńarčević 2001, Tosi 2001, Wagner 2000), i quali hanno puntato il dito sul paradosso della traduzione e sull'assenza di una politica linguistica e di una cultura legale europea a livello unitario. Basandomi esclusivamente su testi legali e sulla pragmatica delle norme giuridiche (Olivecrona 1994:[1962], von Wright 1963), intendo dimostrare che l'autenticità linguistica delle traduzioni del diritto europeo è meno contraddittoria di quanto sembra. Il principio di autenticità è valido solo quando i testi vengono autenticati e pubblicati sulla Gazzetta Ufficiale dell'UE, ma prima di quel momento, nulla impedisce di considerarli traduzioni o versioni linguistiche.Item 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.Item Метомарфозы языковой личности говорящего при переводе судебного допроса(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Isolahti, NinaThe article deals with the speaker's lexicon features during court interpretation. The study is based on the transcripts of the authentic interpreter mediated court investigations and analyzed using a corpus analytical approach. The analysis of the data shows, that interpreters strive to be loyal to the juristic macrocontext and the situation in which conversation takes place. That might lead to the wrong understanding of the identity (personality) of the speaker by the recipient. The overemphasizing of the features of speakers idiolect might lead to major misrepresentation of the information that was in the source message. The interpreter's endeavor of using special juristic terms might also complicate communication process.Item Kann Man Rechtstexte kulturell einbetten?(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Kocbek, AlenkaIn 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.Item The long-felt need of a legal translation textbook: review of "Przekład prawny i sądowy" by Anna Jopek-Bosiacka(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Biel, ŁucjaItem Lost in Translation: the Verbal Change from "Persona" to "Person"(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Wu, Tzung-MouThis paper challenges the modern legal concept of "person" by analyzing the translation problems of some Roman law fragments. It shows why the Latin word "persona" cannot be the etymon of the vernacular "person", and argues that the modern use of "person" stems from the nineteenth-century German juridical literature, especially that of F. C. von Savigny. This paper shows that "persona" forms a phrase with verbs like gerere, tenere and sustinere (bear, carry, hold, etc.) and has no meaning by itself. Such phrases require a noun complement in genitive form, as their synonym "represent", which is transitive, needs a direct object. On the other hand, the modern literature attributes a sense to "person", taking it as equivalent to "human individual" and using it word with the verb "be". This use is a modern invention and cannot be re-translated into Latin without semantic confusion.Item German legal terminology in the area of higher education – between national varieties and the use of English(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Wissik, TanjaThis 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.Item Правовое и метазыковое сознание будущих правоохранителей(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Skorofatova, AnnaВ данной статье понятие метаязыковое сознание определено как область знания человека о своем языке, а профессиональное языковое сознание как психолингвистическая модель, реконструирующая систему основных образов сознания, формируемых и овнешняемых с помощью профессионально ориентированных языковых средств. Специфика языкового сознания будущих правоохранителей такова, что его центральной частью должно быть сознание правовое. В статье выявлены элементы правосознания в структуре языковой личности правоохранителя на основании реконструирования концептов, представляющих специфические правовые категории и понятия: права и обязанности, закон и законность, суд, правосудие, преступление, наказание и др. С этой целью был применен метод ассоциативного эксперимента, в результате которого можно утверждать, что процент терминоориентированных языковых единиц в языковом сознании будущего правоохранителя (61,5%) указывает на недостаточную степень формирования профессиональной личности в курсантах 3-го курса. Тем не менее, в сознании будущего правоохранителя имеются профессионально маркированные когнитивные структуры. В реконструированных ассоциативных полях актуализируются связи правовых концептов с определяющими признаками правового общества (24,0%), обобщающими (родовыми) и конкретизирующими видовыми правовыми понятиями (11,0% и 3,8%), правоприменительной деятельностью (13,7%), аутентичностью государственного языка (3,8%), нормативно-правовыми актами (3,0%), общенаучной сферой (2,2%). Однако эмоционально-оценочные компоненты исследуемых концептов для профессионального языкового сознания курсантов также оказались актуальными (38,5%).Item Making our Law Students Comprehend Foreign Legal Terminology: The Quest for Identifying Function, Context, the Semainon and the Semainomenon in the Teaching of Comparative Law(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Platsas, Antonios E.This paper will explore the implications in relation to the possibility of making law students comprehend foreign legal terminology. The starting point of our analysis, our hypothesis, will be that the law student is not necessarily equipped with foreign language skills. For this reason the author will attempt to demonstrate that comparative lawyers must familiarise their unfamiliarised (students of law) with familiar domestic16 terminology where this is possible. If no such familiar concepts can be found, the comparative lawyer should attempt to proceed with "translating" foreign legal concepts by the use of "close (functional) terminological equivalents" in one's domestic legal language (school of functionalism). If, on the other hand, no parallel legal devices for the foreign legal term are found in one‘s domestic jurisdiction, the comparative lawyer should proceed by deploying a contextual approach in his analysis/teaching (school of contextualism). Above all, one is reminded that words are mere conventions. So too legal terms are mere conventions. As a result, it would be neglectful to not state that our students must be assisted in identifying the semainon (ζημαίνον) and the semainomenon (ζημαινόμενον), that is assisted in identifying the signified and the signifier, when they engage themselves with foreign legal terminology in their comparative law studies. Additionally, as Van Hoecke has argued, apparently disconnected notions, concepts or areas of law may well be relevant to each other (Van Hoecke 2004, 175). Yet, it would be perfectly "legitimate" on certain occasions for one to compare prima facie connected terms such as "Interprétation – Interpretation or Construction – Auslegung" respectively in French, English and German, since these terms are a perfectly valid comparative trio (all words basically refer to the same intellectual activity) (Platsas 2008, 6; quoting Van Hoecke, op. cit., n. 3). All in all, the paper will conclude that the comparative lawyer should be constantly reminded of the difficulties that his/her students might have when dealing with foreign legal terminology, because of one has it that even experienced comparative lawyers can face problems of comprehension when dealing with foreign legal terminology.Item Polysemy in Contracts Establishong an Employment Relationship under the Law of England and Wales – A Case Study(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Kizińska, AnnaIn the first part of the article, by way of an introduction the unique features of the style of English legal language as well as the term polysemy from the cognitive linguistics point of view are presented. The second part demonstrates the analysis of the semantic frame of contracts establishing an employment relationship, its obligatory and optional sections (inter alia: termination of employment, probationary period and confidentiality). Next, the key polysemic words and expressions appearing in the contracts in question together with examples of their legal and colloquial meaning (to terminate, a termination, to second, a remedy, to settle, to govern etc.) are discussed. Subsequently, the paper concentrates on both polysemic words and expressions supporting key expressions as well as other polysemic expressions (amalgamation, a schedule, to incorporate) to present their meanings in various contexts. The research was carried out on ten model employment and internship contracts as well as secondment agreements under the law of England and Wales by virtue of which an employment relationship is formed.Item Lunfardo lexical units related to legal matters(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Nowak, JoannaThe article deals with the Argentinian slang Lunfardo which is spoken mainly in Buenos Aires, La Plata and their surroundings. The main objective of the paper is the lexicological analysis of Lunfardo lexical units related to legal matters. Lunfardo came into existence at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries when a great amount of immigrants from different European countries came to Argentina, mainly to its capital Buenos Aires. The languages and dialects spoken by immigrants started to mix with Spanish (its Argentinian variant) and Lunfardo started to develop. The article investigates the history of this linguistic phenomenon and its present situation. It tries to characterize Lunfardo focusing on its linguistic features and social background of its users.Item Deontic Modality and Modals in the Language of Contracts(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Matulewska, AleksandraThe 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).Item Sign character of the exponents of modality in a legal text(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Lizisowa, Maria TeresaThe thesis of this article is that the texts of legislative acts represent the most natural speech. Legal language becomes complete in depicting the world as well as in expressing the will of a legislator and his attitude to what is said by him, both on deictic and symbolic level. Informality in legal language is a desired feature – working on the assumption that an ordinary ethnic language is correctly interpreted.Item Польская и русская дипломатическая терминология: эквивалентность в словаре и тексте (на примере двухсловных терминосочетаний)(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Gaś, SwietlanaДипломатический язык, как и политический язык, остается актуальной темой. К настоящему времени изменились формы дипломатической коммуникации, на первый план выдвинулись новые разновидности дипломатии. Все это, безусловно, может найти отражение в языке. Настоящая статья состоит из двух сравнительно независимых частей. В первой части автором рассматривается проблема фиксации дипломатических терминов в выбранных польском и русском словарях. Во второй части исследования предлагается общий анализ двухсловных дипломатических терминосочетаний, затрагиваются некоторые аспекты сравнительного анализа терминов на русском и польском языках, а также рассматривается употребление терминосочетаний в тексте. В приложении включена таблица Польские и русские дипломатические словосочетания: текстовые эквиваленты.Item Interpreters in the Courtroom: the Importance of Competence and Quality(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Kościałkowska-Okońska, EwaCourt 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.Item Legal Reasonableness and the Need for a Linguistic Approach in Comparative Constitutional Law(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Pennicino, SaraThe 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.Item Strategies argumentatives et attitude du locuteur dans les arrets de la cour de cassation française et du tribunal supremo espagnol: une analyse contrastive(Instytut Językoznawstwa Wydział Neofilologii, UAM, 2010) Cunillera, Montserrat; Rey, JoëlleLes textes juridiques sont étroitement liés à une communauté linguistique et culturelle déterminée et reflètent le rapport de forces qui s‘établit entre ses membres. Ce sont des textes d‘une grande complexité qui obéissent à des conventions linguistiques assez rigides. Cependant, comme le soulignent Anscombre et Ducrot (1983), toute unité linguistique est porteuse d‘un faisceau d‘instructions sémantico-pragmatiques qui déclenchent une certaine orientation argumentative et reflètent un point de vue spécifique de la part du locuteur (Raccah 2005). Partant d‘un corpus de textes composé d‘arrêts de la première chambre civile de la Cour de Cassation française et d‘arrêts prononcés par la Sala Primera de lo Civil del Tribunal Supremo espagnol, nous proposons d‘analyser, d‘une part, certains moyens expressifs employés dans ce type de textes pour se référer au locuteur et au responsable de l‘arrêt et, d‘autre part, certains marqueurs qui servent à articuler les différentes séquences textuelles. Dans ce sens, l‘analyse contrastive des textes juridiques met en évidence que, sous une apparente objectivité, se dissimulent des points de vue caractéristiques de ce type de textes aussi bien au niveau macro-textuel qu‘au niveau micro-textuel.