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Legal Translation: As One of The More Complex and Complicated Professional

The document discusses different types of translation including general, technical, legal, commercial, administrative, and literary translation. It provides details on what each type involves, such as technical translation requiring subject matter expertise and legal translation needing to account for cultural and political contexts. The document also defines translation terms like source text, target text, and machine translation. Additionally, it compares the similarities and differences between the roles of translators and interpreters.

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Teodora Turtoi
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68 views3 pages

Legal Translation: As One of The More Complex and Complicated Professional

The document discusses different types of translation including general, technical, legal, commercial, administrative, and literary translation. It provides details on what each type involves, such as technical translation requiring subject matter expertise and legal translation needing to account for cultural and political contexts. The document also defines translation terms like source text, target text, and machine translation. Additionally, it compares the similarities and differences between the roles of translators and interpreters.

Uploaded by

Teodora Turtoi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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 General Translation: The simplest of translation types, a general translation allows a

translator quite a lot of leeway because its source material mostly uses layman terms and
ordinary, everyday speech. There's no need to understand special terminologies, and most
translation work fall into this particular type.
 Technical translation: It covers a broad spectrum: from papers presented at international
conferences to just a manual of how to operate a machine. Often it requires translators to
be up-to-date in the relevant field viz. medicine, engineering etc. Manufacturing
companies often have to translate documents of how to assemble a machine, operate it or
trouble shoot it in languages spoken in countries where the machinery is exported. The
translation may also involve drawings, on screen displays, print outs etc. Software giants
like Microsoft, Oracle etc. regularly release new updates of their software products, so
they need to update their multilingual websites with the latest information.
 Legal Translation: As one of the more complex and complicated professional
translation types out there, legal translation is best described as the translation of treaties,
contracts, and many other legal documents. A translation service is responsible for both
understanding politico-legal and socio-cultural context behind a legal text and translating
it in such a way that a target audience with a different cultural/political/social background
could understand, because one simple slip-up or mistranslation of a contract's passage
could lead to disastrous consequences.
 Commercial Translation: Just like its legal counterpart, a commercial translation or
business translation (not to be confused with advertising translation) requires a translator
to have specialist translation skills and business jargon knowledge in order to translate a
business' every report, tender document, company account, and correspondence. There's a
bit of overlap between commercial translation and legal translation as well, in the sense
that companies tend to handle legal paperwork alongside business paperwork.
 Administrative Translation: "Administrative" can mean many things, but in the context
of translation, it merely refers to translating managerial texts used in different
corporations, businesses, and organizations.
 Literary Translation: Has been in existence since biblical times. As its name suggests,
literary translation refers to translation done for literature such as poems, plays, short
stories, and novels. Just as general translation is the simplest form and legal translation is
the most difficult form, many people in the industry consider literary translation as the
highest form of translation. The reason behind this is because literary translation goes
beyond translation of context; a literary translator must be proficient in translating humor,
cultural nuances, feelings, emotions, and other subtle elements of a given work.

Alignment tool: Application that automatically pairs versions of same text in the source and
target languages in a table. Also called bi-text tool.
Back translation: Process of translating a previously translated text back into its source
language.
CAT (tools): Computer-assisted translation (tools) - The process by which a human translator
uses computer software to facilitate translation.
Cognate: In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. An
example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt and skirt.
False friends: False friends are pairs of words or phrases in two languages or dialects (or letters
in two alphabets) that look or sound similar, but differ in meaning.
Machine translation: Sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT is a sub-field of
computational linguistics that investigates the use of software to translate text or speech from one
language to another
TEP – Translation, Editing, Proofreading: TEP basically wraps up the translation sequence in
a nutshell, using TEP instead of just ‘translation’ is more accurate as it takes in the three main
steps in a translator’s workflow; Translation – the translation of a text, Editing – editing or
implementing any changes, and Proofreading – A review of the translated text. These three steps
are critical to delivering a high-quality result.
Source Text – ST: Text to be translated.
Target Text – TT: Translated Text. Result of the translation process in the target language.
Language A: Native language or equivalent to native, used as source and target.
Language B: Other than native, perfect command, used as source and in some cases as a target.
Languages A and B are known as Active languages.
Language C: Complete understanding but only used as source.
Language C is known as Passive languages.

Similarities between Interpreters and Translators


 Both interpreters and translators work with a source language (which is the original
language from which they’re working) and a target language;
 Both of these professions only work into their mother tongue (the exception to this rule is
a Liaison Interpreter – see below);
 They both extract a message from the source language and convey it to their target in the
target language;
 Both the interpreter and translator are linguists; and
 They both require professional qualifications.
Differences between Interpreters and Translators
 An interpreter works with the spoken word, whereas a translator works with the written
word;
 An interpreter is paid either by the hour or by the day, whereas a translator charges on a
per word, per hour, or per page basis;
 An interpreter may be required to interpret both from and into their mother tongue, such
as interpreters doing liaison interpreting for hospitals, police, courts, and so on; while all
translators work into their mother tongue;
 To a certain degree translators have time on their side, meaning they can use dictionaries
and are generally not required to translate on the spot; whereas interpreters must be
proficient in delivering the message in unison with the original speech (known as
Simultaneous Interpreting) or immediately afterward (known as Consecutive
Interpreting);
 The tools a translator users are entirely different to those of an interpreter. Translators use
CAT tools (Assisted Translation or Computer Aided), dictionaries and computers;
whereas an interpreter may use headphones and a microphone in a booth or a notepad and
pen for taking notes, but most importantly they take with them their memory and their
vast knowledge of interpretation.

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