A Linguistic Analysis of Some Problems of Arabic-English Translation of Legal Texts, with Special Reference to Contracts A Linguistic Analysis of Some Problems of Arabic-English Translation of Legal Texts, with Special Reference to Contracts By Ahmad Abdelmoneim Youssef Masry Zidan A Linguistic Analysis of Some Problems of Arabic-English Translation of Legal Texts, with Special Reference to Contracts By Ahmad Abdelmoneim Youssef Masry Zidan This book first published 2015 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2015 by Ahmad Abdelmoneim Youssef Masry Zidan All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8080-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8080-0 This work would not have been possible without the support of many people. I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Ali Ezzat, Dr. Abdelfatah Moftah and Mr. Abdelaziz Hamdy who were abundantly helpful and offered invaluable assistance, support and guidance. Deepest gratitude is also due to the members of the supervisory committee, without their knowledge and assistance, this study would not have been successful. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude for the constant support, understanding and encouragement that I received from my father, my wife, my children, my brothers and my sister. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................... ix Part I Chapter One ................................................................................................ 3 Introduction: Theoretical Preliminaries 1.1 Objective of the Study .................................................................... 4 1.2 Research Questions ......................................................................... 4 1.3 Significance of the Study ................................................................ 5 1.4 Organization of the Study ............................................................... 6 1.5 Review of Literature ....................................................................... 6 1.6 Origins and History of Legal Language ........................................ 10 Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 15 Legal Texts 2.1 The Notion of Legal Language – Real or Fictitious ...................... 16 2.2 Definition of Legal Texts .............................................................. 17 2.3 Legal Language as a DistinctiveGenre ........................................ 20 2.4 Register ......................................................................................... 22 Chapter Three ........................................................................................... 27 Description of Legal Language and Legal Translation 3.1 The Nature of Legal Language ..................................................... 29 3.2 Features of Legal Language .......................................................... 34 3.3 Purpose of Translation of Legal Texts .......................................... 43 3.4 Legal Translation.......................................................................... 47 Chapter Four ............................................................................................. 51 Contracts 4.1 Language Of Contracts ................................................................. 52 viii Table of Contents Part II Chapter Five ............................................................................................. 61 Application 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 61 5.2 Translated Contracts ..................................................................... 63 5.3 Syntactic Features of English Legal Texts with Reference to Contracts ................................................................................... 72 Chapter Six ............................................................................................... 81 Conclusion Appendix A .............................................................................................. 85 Text A Appendix B ............................................................................................... 91 Text B Notes ....................................................................................................... 103 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 105 INTRODUCTION There is an inseparable relationship between language and law. In any society, rules of law are written rules. Law and language are closely related. Law needs language. Law may even be influenced by language. Lawyers are like any other users of language. Legal translation from one language to another cannot be performed without regard to the cultural differences between the two legal systems. The areas, in which issues arising from the drafting of legal language have attracted most attention to date, are the fields of legal translation. By means of written language, constitutions come into existence, laws and statutes are enacted, and contractual agreements between contracting parties take effect. The legal implications of language continue to extend far beyond the courtroom – to interactions between police and suspects, to conversations between lawyers and their clients, to law enforcement's use of surreptitious recordings, and to such unlawful speech acts as offering a bribe, or issuing a threat, or making a defamatory statement. A little reflection suffices to reveal just how essential language is to the legal enterprise. The approaches to legal translation have been mostly oriented towards the preservation of the letter rather than effective rendering in the target language, legal texts having always been accorded the status of "sensitive" texts and treated as such. A challenge to the unquestioned application of a "strictly literal" approach to legal translation came only in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Sarcevic, 2000, p. 24). This book aims to provide a relatively comprehensive description of legal language in general and an application was done to the main features of the language of contracts and how each translator approached problematic areas of legal translation in the two contracts.