THE TRANSLATION OF LEGAL LANGUAGE THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION

ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………………3
INTODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………….4
1. The Legal Text and Its Translation 7
1.1. What Is the Law? 7
1.2. What Is the Legal Text? 8
1.3. Legal Language - Specialized Language 8
1.4. Specificity of Legal Translation 11
1.4.1. The Normative Character of the Legal Text 11
1.4.2. Legal Language 12
1.4.3. Diversity of Legal Systems 12
1.4.4. Basic Documentation for Translation 13
1.4.5. Pluridisciplinary Approach of the Legal Translation 14
1.5. Sense and Signification in Legal Texts 15
Semantic Analysis 16
Syntactic Analysis 17
Grammatical Analysis 17
Lexical Analysis 17
Stylistic Analysis 18
2. The Language of the Law Analysed in the Text of the European Constitution 19
2.1 General Characteristics 19
2.2 Lexical Characteristics 20
2.3. Stylistic Characteristics 28
2.4. Syntactic Characteristics 29
2.4.1 The Length of Sentences 36
2.4.2. Passive Voice 38
2.5. Semantic Characteristics 38
3. Translation Issues in the European Constitution 44
3.1. Introduction 44
3.2. Cultural Input of Legal Terms 45
3.2.1. The Connection of Language with the Legal System 46
3.2.2. Translation Problems which Stem from the Cultural Input of Some Legal Terms 47
3.2.2.1. Terms which Denominate Institutions or Concepts Specific for a Particular Legal System 47
The official translation of some EU concepts and Institutions 48
3.2.2.2. Terms Referring to Vague Notions 51
3.2.2.3. Ideologically Marked Terms 51
3.3. Ambiguity in Legal Translation 52
Terms which have both a legal and a current sense 53
3.4. Equivalence in Legal Translation 54
Equivalence achieved through the same linguistic means in the translation of the European Constitution 67
3.5. Formation of the Legal Translator 68
CONCLUSIONS 72