Uniqueness of translation juridical texts

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Contents

Introduction

Theoretical part

1. Linguistic theory for legal translation

1.1 The theoretical framework

1.2 The issue of equivalence in legal translation

1.3 Functional equivalence

2. Types of official translations

3. Classification of juridical documents, peculiarities of their translation

3.1 Translation of official documents

3.2 Types of standard documents

3.3 Peculiarities of translation of standard documents

Practical part

Conclusion

References



Introduction

The theme of the course work is “Uniqueness of translation juridical texts”.

Confirmation of a choice of the theme and its urgency. Translation is a very ancient kind of human activity. As soon as groups of people with different languages were born in human history, bilinguals appeared and they helped to communicate between collectives of different languages. With the development of the written language, written translators join oral ones. They translated different texts of official, religious and business character. Translation had the main social function at first. It made possible inter-linguistic communication of people. The spreading of the written translation opened to people the wide access to cultural achievements of other nations; it made possible interaction and inter-enrichment of literature and culture. And nowadays in the time of global interrelationship between countries translation plays a huge role.

Legal translation or juridical translation is translation of texts related to the sphere of law which are used to exchange legal information among people who speak different languages. Since the law is connected with socio-economic and cultural peculiarities of a country, legal translation is a difficult task. To transmit legal information adequately, language of legal translation must be especially accurate, clear and authentic. 

Sometimes legal translation is considered to be a special kind of technical translation. The major distinction consists in a special responsibility of legal texts translators, which is similar to the medical texts translators' responsibility. Any mistake or inaccuracy in documents can cause serious legal consequences. 

When translating a legal text, a translator must remember the following. Source text is composed in accordance with the corresponding legal system of a source language country, and the translation will be used in some other legal system with its own distinctive legal features. 

Translation of legal documents requires certain qualifications - it should be exercised only by professional translators who have serious operational experience in this sphere or additional education in the sphere of law. A perfect variant is when a legal text is edited by a professional lawyer. 

Legal translation has special demands on language and style of the statement - the right style implies the accuracy of wording, logical structure and authenticity of content. Thereby, high quality translation of documents requires sufficient background legal knowledge and proficiency in special legal language. In some cases even punctuation marks of the source text have significance in legal translation. Remember a classic example “Execute not pardon”! 

Serious difficulties in legal documents translation can be caused by professional terms. The problem is connected with diversity of legal right branches and specificity of terminology in each of them. Sometimes the same term which has one meaning in the field of civil law, denotes a completely different concept in maritime law. 

Generally, legal text translation requires true professionalism and attention to details. 

The aim of the course work is to find out the peculiarities of translation of juridical texts.

Objectives of the work. To achieve the aim of the work we have to investigate the following problems:

to classify the juridical texts;

to find out the ways and peculiarities of translation of juridical texts.

The structure of the course work. The given course work consists of the following parts:

Introduction, where the aim and the objectives of the course work, its urgency are reflected;

Theoretical part, which is devoted to the main problems concerned to the theme of the given work;

Practical part consists of different examples of juridical texts translation;

Conclusion

References

1. LINGUISTIC THEORY FOR LEGAL TRANSLATION

Official translations are generally documents that serve as legally valid instruments. They include anything from certificates of birth, death or marriage through to academic transcripts or legal contracts. This field of translation is now as important as it is fraught with difficulties, for it is only in a few areas that the cultural differences are so acute and the consequences of failure so palpable. In a globalizing world, our official institutions increasingly depend on translations of official documents, but little has been done to elaborate the skills and dilemmas involved.

Different languages divide semantic space in different ways. Additionally, the legal translations analysed here cannot be carried out in isolation from the legal cultural concepts and differences of legal systems. Theory helps to open up a series of possibilities and alternatives to make legal translation a practical possibility. The theoretical framework to be discussed here looks at the researched views of scholars on translation methods used for the transfer of legal language, the translator's stance when selecting a relevant method and the issue of equivalence of the main component of the legal language - the terminology.

1.1 The theoretical framework

Sinclair proposes that the advantage of a theoretical framework is that it offers a quick route to sophisticated observation and insight . From the epistemological perspective legal translation stands at the crossroads of legal theory, language theory and translation theory and therefore the scholarly views presented below combine a selection of aspects from these disciplines. The most general view is Schleiermacher's distinction that refers to foreignization and domestication of the TT:

`The translator can either leave the writer in peace as much as possible and bring the reader to him, or he can leave the reader in peace as much as possible and bring the writer to him.'

(Schleiermacher von)

`Bringing the reader' to the ST would require the TT reader to process the translation in its original foreign context, while `bringing the writer to the reader' would mean domesticating the ST in terms of the context familiar to the TT readers and thus making it easy for it to be assimilated by them. Comparable methods are considered in translation theory relating to legal language and terminology. In support of foreignizing strategies, Koller insists that full adaptation is not an accepted method of translation in legal texts as it results in semantic distortion. Nord further maintains that a TT cannot be regarded as a translation if it is not `bound' to the ST . Eugene Nida proposes a theory of `formal equivalence' that focuses on `gloss translation', resolving all lexical and grammatical differences between ST and TT by remaining as close as possible to the ST:

`…it is essential that formal equivalence is stated primarily in terms of a comparison of the way in which the original receptors understood and appreciated the text and the way in which receptors of the translated text understand and appreciate the translated text.' (Nida)

The excessive use of loan words without explanation in the translated document can easily render it incomprehensible or unclear to a reader, even one with a great degree of legal background in the TL, such as the judge. For the same reason we do not agree with the use of neologisms in the aforementioned type of documents as these are invented words whose precise meaning has often not been fully established in the TL.

TT-oriented methods derive from contrasting views on the translation of legal terms that also have a large group of scholarly supporters. Another of Nida's theories proposes the method of `dynamic equivalence', that is the aforementioned domestication of the ST. Tomбљek proposes that legal translation `is a procedure based on both linguistic and legal comparative approaches'. He supports the view of that the focus should be the target language, and divides the translation process into `intrasemiotic' and `intersemiotic'. Intrasemiotic translation is the transfer of information from the first to the second semantic level of the SL i.e. transfer from the legal language to the legal metalanguage while intersemiotic translation is the translation of a legal text from the SL to the TL . Official legal documents should stay faithful to the ST and it is extremely unlikely that the direct and indirect meanings of legal concepts of the ST have precisely the same legal meaning when domesticated in the TL legal culture. Secondly, the judge should know that the document originates from a foreign legal system and thus determine which law or part of the instrument is to be applied when interpreting certain legal terminology.

In legal translation, many scholars associate legal equivalence with the extent to which the same `legal effect' can be produced in the TT while maintaining fidelity to the ST. This technique, often referred to as a functional equivalence, is described by Newmark as a procedure that occupies the universal area between the SL and the TL. We agree with Jean-Claude Gйmar who recommends the use of functional equivalence for the purpose of the official translation of contracts because it makes the TT both comprehensible to the target reader and faithful to the original ST.

Newmark further suggests that when dealing with legal documents like contracts that are concurrently valid in the TL, the translator should focus on a communicative approach that is TT-orientated.

Beauprй also supports the statement and proposes that legal translation should formulate two `equal' versions of the same instrument, which strive not so much for `verbal and grammatical' parallelism.

In official translations of contracts that can be used in a court of law, the strategies used must above all focus on one main principle, which is fidelity to the source text. Legal translators have traditionally been bound by the principle of fidelity. Convinced that the main goal of legal translation is to reproduce the content of the source text as accurately as possible, both lawyers and linguists agreed that legal texts had to be translated literally. For the sake of preserving the letter of the law, the main guideline for legal translation was fidelity to the source text. Even after legal translators won the right to produce texts in the spirit of the target language, the general guideline remained fidelity to the source text.

1.2 The issue of equivalence in legal translation

At the heart of the aforementioned theoretical framework lies the equivalence of terminology that has its origins in different legal traditions. According to de Groot (1998), the first stage in translating legal concepts involves studying the meaning of the source-language legal term to be translated. Then, after having compared the legal systems involved, a term with the same content must be sought in the target-language legal system. Equivalence aims to give the lexis and terminology of two languages equal meaning and corresponding import and significance, and, as can be seen from some of the research presented above, it also strives to achieve the same legal effect based on legal interpretation of the source information.

1.3 Functional equivalence

The legal functional equivalent is a term in the target legal system designating a concept or institution, the function of which is the same as that in the ST. Weston further proposes that `the technique of using a functional equivalent may be regarded as the ideal method of translation'. Functional equivalence can be categorised into three groups: near-equivalence, partial equivalence and non-equivalence. The groups are described below.

a) Near-equivalence occurs when legal concepts share most of their primary and incidental characteristics or are the same, which is very rare.

Near-functional equivalence

One example to illustrate near-functional equivalence is the term `contractor' (ST1). The word `contractor' translated into Russian is `заказчик' or `человек, заключающий сделку'. `Заказчик' or `человек, заключающий сделку' is `one of the parties who undertakes a but of a different kind than the permanent employment contract. `Заказчик' often relates to `one - off' contracts with a set deadline and clearly defined purpose i.e. construction of a building, professional advice and etc. The word has identical connotations in English language: `a person who undertakes a contract especially to provide materials, conduct building operations, etc.' as opposed to an employee who is `a person who works under the direction and control of another (the employer) in return for a wage or salary'.

Another example that demonstrates near-functional equivalence is the term `annual bonus' in ST1 that is translated into Russian literally as `сверхурочная премия'. However, it has to be highlighted that the term `сверхурочная премия' is more often referred to in Kazakhstan as `тринадцатая зарплата' (thirteen [pay

b) Partial equivalence occurs when the legal concepts are quite similar and the differences can be clarified, e.g. by lexical expansion.

Partial functional equivalence

One example that illustrates this type of functional equivalence that calls for attention is the term `director'. In Russian language a director does not have to be a member of the Board of Directors in order to hold that title while in the United Kingdom it is a necessary requirement. The role of the subject of the ST1 is thus that of Financial Director and member of the Board of Directors. To make the reader fully aware of the differences in the responsibilities of a Director or to prompt the reader to seek further legal advice and reassurance that the TT has the same legal effect as the original we have added `член Совета директоров' (and member of the Board of Directors) in brackets.

The next example belonging to this group of equivalents is the term `contract' (ST1). The Russian concept of `contract' (контракт) is much broader than its English equivalent as it also incorporates the legal notion of the semi-technical term `agreement'. The word `contract' is also an example of the etymological equivalents that often belong to the group of partial functional equivalents. Since in this case the translation was into Russian the term was translated literally, i.e. `договор', maintaining its intended English meaning.

Another term `Council Tax' (ST2) is a tax levied on households by local authorities in the United Kingdom. This tax shares many similarities with Russian `налоговая пошлина' (Town Tax). Nonetheless, these taxes are calculated slightly differently in Russia and in the United Kingdom and thus, for the purposes of translation that can be used in a court of law, after translating the term as `налоговая пошлина'it is necessary to add (Council Tax) in brackets for further clarification.

c) Non-equivalence occurs when only few or none of the important aspects of legal concepts coincide or if there is no functional equivalent in the target legal system for a specific ST concept.

Non-equivalence

One example that illustrates this type of functional equivalent is `a contracting-out certificate' complemented by additional information `under the Pension Schemes Act 1993' (ST1) that refers to an option given to certain Civil Service employees to contract out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme by joining occupational or personal pension schemes in the United Kingdom. The legal concept of the English `contracting-out certificate' does not exist in the Russian legal tradition. For the purpose of the official translation of contracts the legal meaning of this non-equivalent term is most precisely conveyed by the use of a descriptive paraphrase with the original in parenthesis: `Certificate confirming contracting-out by way of agreement (contracting-out certificate)'. Since the Act it refers to follows the term, it is the target reader's responsibility to investigate the legal implications regarding the certificate.

Another example of a non-equivalent term is `severability' (ST1). The term does not have a functional equivalent in legal terminology and none of the latest bilingual or monolingual legal or general dictionaries used in the paper attempts to translate it. The translator must thus first understand the implications of the term in English law and then find a corresponding concept in the TL legal terminology. `Severability' is the title of a contract clause that is intended to condense the meaning of the entire clause and which defines consequences for the entire contract if part of the contract has become impossible to fulfil or is no longer required. The term must not be translated as `разделение' (separation, divisibility) since then the clause could be interpreted in many ways in a Russian context. Rather, it should be replaced by a neutral paraphrase: «форс-мажорные обстоятельства по договору» (separate interpretation of the contract provisions [in case of annulment]) that has the same legal effect as `severability'.

Determining the acceptability of functional equivalents is, in our view, the most important aspect of the process of legal translation and it frequently depends on the context. When assessing the acceptability of a functional equivalent the legal translator should `take account of the structure, classification, scope of application and legal effects of both the functional equivalent and its source term'. Therefore, when dealing with legal conceptual voids or partial equivalents a legal background can be very helpful for the translator. The legal topic must be well researched in order to provide supporting information in the TL.



2. Types of official translations

There are three main levels of the official translations:

Certified translation - this is when the professional translator performs the translation, and then certifies it by putting a clause at the end that they are a qualified translator, and that the translation of the official document is accurate and true to the best of translator's knowledge and ability. A certified translation is usually sufficient for most governmental bodies, universities, schools, insurance providers or employers for documents such as birth, divorce and marriage certificates, study transcripts, diplomas, medical reports, contracts, power of attorneys, household bills etc. Translators do not have to be members of professional translators' organizations.

Notarised translation - this type of translation might be required for certain governmental or legal bodies. In this case, a qualified translator will perform their translation as in the case of certified translation, but will have to collaborate with a notary public, in whose presence the affidavit is sworn to declare true and accurate translation of the official documents. This will be confirmed by the notary public with their official stamp and signature.

You should always check with the body concerned whether you need a notarised translation. Such a translation carries an additional cost of about Ј70 for notary public fees.

Apostille - this certification might be required for documents needed overseas, especially concerning countries complying with the Hague Convention. Examples might include when you plan to marry overseas, adopt a foreign child, or obtain a job abroad.

The process follows the same procedure as for a notarised translation, after which the notarised document is sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). They will confirm that the signing notary public was authorised to do so. Similarly to an affidavit, the apostille will incur an additional cost on a top of the cost of the translation.

Classification of juridical documents, peculiarities of their translation.

Legal translation depending on the type of source documents can be divided into:

translation of laws and regulatory legal acts,

translation of contracts,

translation of legal opinions and memoranda,

translation of certificates and documents,

translation of letters of attorney,

translation of legal texts for information and experience exchange among lawyers from different countries.

Legal documents include: laws, draft legislations, regulatory legal acts, contracts and collateral agreements, protocols and acts, constituent instrument of organizations, notarial documents, certificates and others. Therefore, legal translation covers such spheres of law as constitutional right, administrative law, civil law, economic law, fiscal law, criminal law, international law. 

Translation of legal documents requires certain qualifications - it should be exercised only by professional translators who have serious operational experience in this sphere or additional education in the sphere of law. A perfect variant is when a legal text is edited by a professional lawyer. 

Legal translation has special demands on language and style of the statement - the right style implies the accuracy of wording, logical structure and authenticity of content. Thereby, high quality translation of documents requires sufficient background legal knowledge and proficiency in special legal language. In some cases even punctuation marks of the source text have significance in legal translation. Remember a classic example “Execute not pardon”! 

Serious difficulties in legal documents translation can be caused by professional terms. The problem is connected with diversity of legal right branches and specificity of terminology in each of them. Sometimes the same term which has one meaning in the field of civil law, denotes a completely different concept in maritime law. 

Generally, legal text translation requires true professionalism and attention to details. 

3.1 Translation of official documents

The translation of official documents is a subfield of specialized legal translation. It requires absolute precision and the exclusive use of professional terms approved by the relevant official bodies.

Defining the specificity of technical translation, special translation theory (if we talk about translation of official documents) studies three types of factors which must be taken into account while describing translations of certain type. First of all, the particular functional style of a source document itself can influence the type of translation process and require from technical translator use of special methods and ways. Secondly, such source orientation can predetermine stylistic characteristics of the translation text and, thus, necessity for choice of such means of language that characterize the same functional style in the target language during technical translation. And, finally, interaction of these two factors can result in appearance of translation peculiarities themselves which are connected both with common features and differences between linguistic signs of the same functional styles of source and target languages and with special conditions and tasks of technical translation from different languages.

Within each functional style we can distinguish some linguistic features which influence on the process and the result of translation is rather significant. For instance, in scientific-technical style, during technical translation these features are lexico-grammatical peculiarities of scientific-technical materials and, first of all, it is the leading role of terminology and special vocabulary.

Translation of technical texts, including official documents, is one of the most demanded services in the translation sphere. It's connected with modern technical development and necessity of constant ensuring such development.

Peculiar features of the style of official documents (it is also applicable to technical interpretation) are its substantiveness, logicality (strict consistency, clear connection between main idea and details), accuracy and objectivity and subsequent lucidity and clarity. All texts of this type tend to use the language means that contribute to satisfaction of needs of this communication sphere.

On the vocabulary level translation of official documents, first of all, implies use of special terminology. Terms must provide clear and accurate definition of real objects and phenomena; establish unambiguous comprehension of transmitted information by specialists. Uppermost, in translation the term must be precise, i.e. it must have strictly determined meaning which can be developed by means of logical definition that removes the place of defined concept in the paradigm of this certain field. For the same reason the term must be monosemantic and, in this regard, context-independent. In other words, it must have its own precise meaning which is determined by its definition in all its occurrences in any text, thus, person who uses the term doesn't have to clarify its meaning in different contexts.

Term precision is directly connected with the demand that every notion should have only one corresponding term, i.e. not to have synonymic terms with corresponding meanings. A term should be the part of strict logical system. Terms meanings and their definitions should conform to the rules of logical classification which clearly distinguishes between objects and notions and doesn't allow ambiguity or contradictoriness. Besides, any term must have strictly objective definition with no secondary meaning which detracts specialist's attention adding the element of subjectivity. Official documents are written in a formal, “cold” or matter-of-fact style of speech. The style of official documents or `officialese' as it is sometimes called, is not homogeneous.

3.2 Types of standard documents

A document (noun from latin documentum [second declension, gen documentо]: lesson, instruction, warning), is a bounded physical or digital representation of a body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate. A document may manifest symbolic, diagrammatic or sensory-representational information. To document (verb) is to produce a document artifact by collecting and representing information. In prototypical usage, a document is understood as a paper artifact, containing information in the form of ink marks. Increasingly documents are also understood as digital artifacts. Document is the practical construct for describing matter in different forms which retain information for a reasonable period of time wherein it can be perceived by a sentient observing entity. The variety usage reveals that the notion of document has rich social and cultural aspects besides the physical, functional and operational aspects.

Standard documents include:

Documents issued by registry office:

birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child.

marriage certificate is the official record that two people have undertaken a marriage ceremony.

divorce certificate is a one page legal document that states that two people whom were previously husband and wife are now legally divorced.

death certificate is a document issued by a government official such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death.

Documents of identity:

passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder.

driving license is an official document which states that a person may operate a motorized vehicle, such as a motorcycle, car, truck or a bus, on a public roadway as long as they are not under the influence of alcohol or in some countries, using a mobile phone.

student card is a photo identification card that identifies the holder as a full-time student.

other documents of identity

Documents about education

diploma (without supplement) is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study, or confers an academic degree.

school leaving certificate is the final examination in the secondary school system.

Certificates:

certificate of employment

certificate of studies

bank certificates

certificate of salary

certificate of residence

marriage certificate

other certificates with the volume of no more than 1000 symbols

Other documents:

licenses;

registration certificates;

certificates with the volume of no more than 1000 symbols;

certificates of property rights

medical certificates without diagnosis indication

Non-standard documents are:

student's record book;

work record card;

power of attorney;

statement;

statement (certificate) about marital status

medical certificates with diagnosis indication

extracts from medical reports etc.

supplements to diplomas

3.3 Peculiarities of translation of standard documents

The lexicon of the standard documents consists of common words and great many of the special terms, which cannot be found out in the ordinary dictionary. One part of common words is known for the pupil from school or other original course of the English language.

There are some peculiarities of translation of some standard documents. Notwithstanding the seeming simplicity the translation of birth certificate or marriage certificate is no such a simple task. Too many special terms (names of institutions, positions), which cannot be found out in the ordinary dictionary, are used in these documents. That's why only the translator with wide experience of translation of such documents can translate them. The big problem is that some standard documents must be apostilied or have notary certification what can be done only if the translation is done by the professional translator. For example, the peculiarity of notary certification of passport translation consists in the fact that the notary doesn't certify a copy of passport and only confirms the translation authenticity.

Other part of common words is unknown by the pupil and represents that basic lexical reserve, which they should acquire in learning process. This part of common words can conditionally be subdivided on some groups:

Words, which on the first stage of tutoring usually are not studied. E. g. to regard - рассматривать, считать.

Words used in meanings, distinct from what pupils have acquired in original course.

Here it is necessary to refer a great many of auxiliary words, not studied before, "on account of" - из-за, “due to “ - благодаря.

Words and word-combinations providing logical connections between separate parts of the text and providing the logic of an account.

E. g. to begin with - прежде всего

Furthermore - кроме того

Summing up - говоря вкратце

Differences in British English and American English

company - corporation

programme - program



Practical part

translation documents standard official

Translation of legal, economic, diplomatic and official business papers not only requires sufficient knowledge of terms, phrases and expressions, but also depends on the clear comprehension of the structure of a sentence and some specific grammar and syntactical patterns, which are characteristic of this style.

Coming across an unknown term in the text, a translator can consult a dictionary. Coming across such a phenomenon as the Nominative Absolute Construction, for instance, a translator can find it time-consuming to search for an equivalent conveying its meaning, unless he or she already knows the corresponding pattern.

This Manual is intended for students who are already aware of the basics and peculiarities of the grammar and syntax of the English language. That is why it offers below only some instructions in translation of certain English constructions, which can cause special difficulties while translating.

INFINITIVE

Depending on the function the Infinitive plays in the sentence it can be translated in the following ways:

as an adverbial modifier of purpose the Infinitive can express an independent idea that adds new information about its subject; the adverb only is omitted in translation, e.g.:

The president announced his resignation only after the failure of his drive to push through the merger of the two countries last summer.

Президент объявил о своей отставке только после того, как прошлым летом закончилась неудачей его попытка объединить две страны.

After the adjectives the last, the only and ordinal numerals the Infinitive is translated as the predicate of an attributive subordinate clause. Its tense form is determined by the context, e.g.:

He was the first high official to be admitted to the inner council of government, to the cabinet.

Он был первым чиновником высокого ранга, который был допущен на закрытые заседания Кабинета.

If + noun + be + Infinitive can be translated as для того чтобы, e.g.:

In any event, members of the association should be prepared to put aside partisan interests if consensus on the abovementioned principles is to be achieved.

В любом случае, чтобы достичь согласия по вышеуказанным принципам, члены ассоциации должны быть готовы пожертвовать своими узкопартийными интересами.

The Complex Object with the Infinitive is translated as an object subordinate clause, e.g.:

Both experiments revealed the rated dimensions to be interrelated.

Оба эксперимента показали, что оценочные параметры тесно связаны между собой.

The Complex Subject with passive forms of the verbs say, think, expect, show, see, find, argue, know, mean, consider, regard, report, believe, hold, suppose, note, presume, claim, admit, interpret, etc. is translated as a complex sentence with an object subordinate clause. Care should be taken about non-perfect forms of the Infinitive (which are translated in the Present time) and perfect forms (which are translated in the Past time), e.g.:

Still they can hardly be said to have formulated a true scientific theory.

И всё же вряд ли можно утверждать, что они сформулировали действительно научную теорию.

The term model is held to have important normative significance.

Считается, что термин модель имеет большое нормативное значение.

The Complex Subject with active forms of the verbs happen, appear, see, prove, turn out, be likely, be certain, be sure, etc. is translated in two possible ways:

a) The English finite form is transformed into a Russian parenthesis and the English Infinitive into a Russian predicate, e.g.:

So, there appear to be two choices.

Таким образом, оказывается, что выбор есть.

b) The English finite form is transformed into a Russian main clause (маловероятно, кажется, etc.) and the English Infinitive into a Russian predicate in an object subordinate clause, e.g.:

Neither proposal is likely to work.

Маловероятно, что какое-либо из этих предложений окажется действенным.

If the English predicate has an object by somebody, such predicate-object clusters are translated as a parenthesis по мнению, согласно данным, как показал (установил, описал, etc.), e.g.:

The results were interpreted by Brown (1989) to be insufficient to draw any substantial conclusions.

По мнению Брауна (1989), этих данных не достаточно для каких-либо существенных выводов.

GERUND

Depending on the function the Gerund plays in the sentence, it can be translated as:

a noun

Banking on a loss of nerve within the board of trustees may turn out to be misguided.

Расчёт на то, что у членов опекунского совета сдадут нервы, может оказаться неверным.

an infinitive

Under the pressure of national campaign, he showed a positive gift for saying the wrong things in the wrong words at the wrong time.

В условиях напряжённой кампании в масштабе всей страны он определённо показал способность говорить не то, что надо, не так, как следовало, и не там, где следовало.

a participle

In Washington there is quiet satisfaction that the French by joining the float have indirectly acknowledged that the U.S. was right all along.

Вашингтон выразил удовлетворение по поводу того, что Франция, присоединившись к странам с плавающим курсом валют, косвенно признала правоту США.

The Perfect Gerund denotes an action which is prior to the action expressed by the finite form of the verb, e.g.:

After having been colonies for a long time, many Asian and African countries have now become independent states.

Многие страны Азии и Африки, которые долго были колониями, стали теперь независимыми государствами.

PARTICIPLE

Participle I can be translated as:

an attributive clause, e.g.:

The States concluding this Treaty hereinafter refer to as the “Parties to the Treaty”.

Государства, заключающие настоящий договор, именуются ниже «Участниками Договора».

an adverbial clause, e.g.:

Heavy artillery and mortal fire broke out again in the city last night, virtually putting the whole population of the city under a state of siege.

Вчера вечером город снова подвергся интенсивному артиллерийскому и миномётному обстрелу, и все его жители фактически оказались в осаде.

a separate sentence, e.g.:

The treasury announced that in August the sterling area had a gold and dollar deficit of 44 million dollars bringing the gold and dollar reserve down to the lowest level reached this year.

Министерство финансов объявило, что в августе стерлинговая зона имела золотой и долларовый дефицит в 44 миллиона долларов. Таким образом, золотые и долларовые резервы достигли минимального годового уровня.

Participle II at the beginning of the sentence can be translated as:

a subordinate clause, e.g.:

Asked if the United States is rendering military aid to the forces opposing the lawful government in that country, the senator gave an evasive reply.

На вопрос о том, оказывают ли Соединённые Штаты военную помощь силам, противостоящим законному правительству страны, сенатор ответил уклончиво.

As a part of the Complex Object construction, Participle I and Participle II can be translated as:

an object clause, e.g.:

The country would like to see its proposals approved by the General Assembly.

Страна хотела бы, чтобы Генеральная Ассамблея одобрила её предложения.

The Nominative Absolute Construction with Participle I and II can be translated in different ways depending on the form of the Participle and the position of the construction in the sentence:

in postposition the Nominative Absolute Construction with Participle I performs the function of an adverbial modifier of attending circumstances:

The Prime Minister and the African National Council promptly lapsed into mutual recrimination, seeking to blame the other for deadlock.

Премьер-министр и Африканский национальный совет тут же перешли ко взаимным обвинениям, причём каждая сторона пыталась переложить на другую вину за то, что они оказались в безвыходном положении.

in preposition the Nominative Absolute Construction with Participle I and II performs the function of an adverbial modifier of cause or time:

That done with, the two statesmen had subsided into long and profitable talks about other subjects.

После того как с этим было покончено, оба государственных мужа приступили к долгому и плодотворному обсуждению других тем.

It being too late for further discussion, the session was adjourned.

Заседание закончилось, так как было слишком поздно, чтобы продолжать обсуждение.

sometimes Participles may be omitted, but the subject-predicate relations in the Construction are still preserved:

The first conference a failure, another meeting at a ministerial level was decided upon.

В связи с неудачей первой конференции было принято решение о проведении ещё одной встречи на уровне министров.

The debate over, the meeting was adjourned.

По окончании дебатов заседание было объявлено закрытым.

The second element of the Nominative Absolute Construction can also be expressed by an infinitive. It can be related to a future action:

With the Congress still to be elected, the Republican leadership was already moving to team up with the Southern Democrats, as it did in the palmy days of the New Deal.

Хотя выборы в Конгресс ещё впереди, руководство Республиканской партии уже предпринимает шаги по объединению с Демократами Юга, как в славные времена «Нового курса».

INVERSION

The order of words in which the subject is placed after the predicate is called inverted word order, or inversion. While translating, the target sentence retains the word order of the source sentence in many cases:

Of special interest should be the first article in Chapter I.

Особый интерес вызывает первая статья в главе I.

Also treated are such matters as theory construction and methodology.

Рассматриваются также такие вопросы, как создание теории и методология.

Had this material been examined from this viewpoint, the rules that he discovered would probably have gone unnoted.

Если бы этот материал был изучен под таким углом зрения, закономерности, установленные на его основе, возможно, и остались бы не замеченными.

Subordinate clauses of concession with an inverted predicate often serve emphatic purposes and can be translated with the help of Russian combinations хотя; какой бы ни был:

Such a principle, strange as it may seem, is championed in one form or another by certain scholars.

Такой принцип, хотя это и может показаться странным, в том или ином виде отстаивают некоторые учёные.

Useful as it is, the book has two general shortcomings.

Какой бы полезной не была эта книга, в ней есть два существенных недостатка.

There are three main levels of the official translations:

Certified translation - this is when the professional translator performs the translation, and then certifies it by putting a clause at the end that they are a qualified translator, and that the translation of the official document is accurate and true to the best of translator's knowledge and ability. A certified translation is usually sufficient for most governmental bodies, universities, schools, insurance providers or employers for documents such as birth, divorce and marriage certificates, study transcripts, diplomas, medical reports, contracts, power of attorneys, household bills etc. Translators do not have to be members of professional translators' organizations.

Conclusion

A document (noun from latin documentum [second declension, gen documentо]: lesson, instruction, warning), is a bounded physical or digital representation of a body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate.

Official documents are written in a formal, “cold” or matter-of-fact style of speech. The style of official documents or `officialese' as it is sometimes called, is not homogeneous.

The lexicon of the standard documents consists of common words and great many of the special terms, which cannot be found out in the ordinary dictionary.

The greatest difficulty for understanding and translation is represented by the terms consisting not of one word, but from group of words. Disclosure of their meanings requires (demands) particular sequence of operations and knowledge of a method of translation of separate components. It is possible to recommend to start translation from the last word. Then under the order on the right to the left to translate words, facing to it, taking into account the semantic relations between the components.

The translation of standard documents shall give an exact meaning of the source text. Some deviations can be made due to the peculiarities of target language or stylistic issue. It is very important to prevent the loss of meaningful information contained in the source text.

Activity of a translator is known for thousands of years. But initially it appeared in oral form and served in all spheres of human activity. Since advent of writing and written translation in the Middle Ages, mostly they were religious literature translations. During the Renaissance translation activity related to the translation of literary works of the past. Chiefly translators serviced grand people and ruling elite, yet common people were not involved in translation at all. And only at the turn of the19-20 century appears so called “informative translation”, which was to serve all social classes, and primarily business people. Therefore, considerable proportion of informative texts represented by business documents. The term translation itself has several meanings: it can refer to the general subject field, the product (the text that has been translated) or the process (the act of producing translation, otherwise known as translating. Nowadays more and more people are getting involved in the world of business relationships. As a result of it, business people need specialists possessing knowledge of the English language used for writing documents. Any serious deal should be struck with the help of contracts and agreements. A written form of agreements is a guarantee that different people, for example Buyers and Sellers, will cooperate in accordance with a certain business strategy, and their interests will be taken into consideration by their partners. A contract makes clear such things as quantity and quality of goods, their prices, delivery terms, order of payment, and other terms. Contract serves to make a business operation smooth and logic. It also proves seriousness of contracting parties and defines their responsibilities before each other. An honest word of a businessman, as well, should be reflected in a contract of a different kind. It is called intentions agreement and is a manifestation of a wish to do business. That is, every step and stage of a business deal should be supported in a legal way, in an official form.

The current work analyses different peculiarities of official style translations. A translation is not just a transcription from one language to another. It needs to render not only the meaning of the words and sentences but also the context, more subtly, what is sometimes described in stylistic manuals as the register of the source text - its level and style of language. This means that the message produced by the translator should call forth a reaction from the Target Language receptor similar to that called forth by the original message from the Source Language receptor. The content, that is, the referential meaning of the message with all its implications and the form of the message with all its emotive and stylistic connotations must be reproduced as fully as possible in the translation as they are to evoke a similar response. Especially if we translate official documents we must remember that the task of a translator translating official documents is to find Target Language equivalents of the source text frames and use them in translation as standard substitutes, filling the slots with frames fillers in compliance with the document content.

There is a clear-cut between formal and informal styles of English, but there is no strict difference between spoken and written business English. Obviously, businessmen do not communicate with their companions using intricate phrases and bookish words. Still, they are obliged to use some formal cliches which may sound strange to non-business people, but are essential for conducting business. The style of official documents is represented by the following sub-styles and variants:

The language of business documents;

The language of legal documents;

The language of diplomacy;

The language of military documents.

Like other style of language, this style has a definite communicative aim and, accordingly, has its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means. The main aim of this type of communication is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking and to reach agreement between two contracting parties.

Each of subdivisions of this style has its own peculiar terms, phrases and expressions, which differ from the corresponding terms, phrases and expressions of other variants of this style.

The peculiar features common to all stylistic varieties of official documents are the following:

the use of abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions. (They are so many of them that there are special addenda in dictionaries to decode them);

the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning;

absence of emotiveness;

definite compositional pattern and design.

should be also noted that the syntactical pattern of this style is as important as the vocabulary. Translation of legal, economic, diplomatic and official business papers requires not only sufficient knowledge of terms, phrases and expressions, but also depends on the clear comprehension of the structure of the sentence, some specific grammar and syntactical patterns, which are characteristics of this style. The syntactical pattern of business correspondence style is made up from compositional patterns of variants of this style which have their own designs. The form of a document itself is informative, because it tells something about the matter dealt with. From the viewpoint of its stylistic structure, the whole document is one sentence. It looks like separate, shaped clauses often divided by commas or semicolons, and not by full stops, often numbered. Every predicate construction begins with a capital letter in the form of a participial or an infinitive construction. One of the most striking features of this style is usage of words in their logical dictionary meaning. There is no room for contextual meanings or for any kind of simultaneous realisation of two meanings. Words with emotive meanings are not to be found there either.



References:

Translation features, Basnett-McGuire, New York Publishing house 1980.

A course book on Military Translation, Ministry of Defense of the USSR, Moscow 1962.

Translation difficulties, T.R. Levitskaya & A.M. Fitterman, «International Relations» Publishing house, Moscow 1976.

Difficulties of translation from English into Russian, Zrajevskaya L.M. & Belyaeva, Moscow Publishing House, 1972.

Appolova M.A. Grammatical difficulties of translation. - М: 1977.