This document serves as an introduction to technical and legal translation between English and Arabic. It emphasizes that translation is not merely word-for-word substitution but involves capturing the essence and meaning of the source text while adapting it to the target language's cultural and linguistic context. The document differentiates between technical and legal translation and interpretation, highlighting the need for accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and specialized knowledge in these fields. It also explains the dual nature of translation as both a process and a product, requiring linguistic proficiency, cultural awareness, and context sensitivity.
Summary of Sequence 01
Sequence 01
Compétence générale visée :
explain the differences between technical and legal translation and interpretation
This lesson serves as is an introduction for you as a student of Legal English to translation in order to develop their understanding of translation issues in both directions: English/Arabic and Arabic/English. The importance of this lesson lies in helping you define translation, its types, purposes and constraints, explain the differences between translation and interpretation, present the main theoretical approaches to translation and finally use practical translation tools (dictionaries, glossaries, corpus, software, etc.). The lesson also features practical exercises following the theoretical explanation to test your understanding of the themes presented earlier. This will enable you to: 1) develop your understanding of translation in a wider context and to give you the necessary notions to improve your translation practice later on and 2) apply your understanding of these topics to help you move further to translate lexical units between English and Arabic.
Legal translation or as Mellinkoff (1963 , p. 3) calls “the language of law” can be easily described as the process of translating documents, like witness statements, contracts, filed patents, transcripts, official reports and financial papers. The legal field remains undeniably crucial in fostering collaboration and facilitating business transactions among individuals and institutions on a scale.
Dear student,
Tough Challenges of Translating Legal Documents
These expressions have the same meaning in English and Arabic.
Non-equivalence (NoE) occurs when only few or none of the important aspects of EnglishArabic legal concepts correspond or if there is no functional equivalent in the target legal system for a specific ST concept. For examples, the Islamic terms and concepts such as
Al Ethm ,االثم Fatwa فتوى that mean in English Sin and Verdict respectively. The English terms Home Office means “ ”الداخلية وزارةthe Ministry of the Interior.
