Przekład formuł słownych w tekstach prawodawczych, traktatowych i praktyki prawniczej

Abstract

Legal, judicial, notarial or administrative texts are characterized by a high level of linguistic standardization. It is determined by tradition and regulations that impose the structure of texts, the use of appropriate terminology and the linguistic shape of specific contents. The linguistic exponents of standardization are ready-made, repetitive and reproducible verbal formulas. They are characterized by stability on the lexical and syntactic plane, constant position in the text, occurrence in similar communicative situations. Quantitative research confirms the high saturation of legal texts and legal practice with repetitive strings of words. Before formulating the rules for the translation of verbal formulas in the language of law, the recommendation of the legal and linguistic services responsible for the correct and uniform translation of international treaties and legal acts and the views of translation theorists are presented. They are extremely divergent in this matter. The arguments cited and the examples of defective translations suggest that the translation of legal formulas should be guided by functional equivalence, even if they differ on the lexical and syntactic levels, as long as they concern comparable procedural activities. An important issue in their translation is the ability to identify a given sequence of words as formulaic expressions.