A genre analysis approach to the study of the translation of court documents

Authors

  • Anabel Borja Albi Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v12i.235

Keywords:

criminal law discourse, legal translation, court translation, criminal court documents, court documents translation, corpus for legal translators, court documents analysis, comparative criminal procedure, documentary resources for legal translators

Abstract

This article describes an action research project on multilingual management and translation of court documents developed by the GENTT research group, which postulates that the notions of ‘textual genre’, ‘genre system’ and ‘meta-genre’ can be powerful tools for accessing and ‘reusing’ the linguistic and extra-linguistic information technical writers and translators need to manage specialised communication. To validate this hypothesis the criminal court genre systems of four countries (Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom) have been analysed and described from a legal-conceptual, discursive-textual and terminological perspective. The results of this contrastive analysis have been used as the basis for creating translation resources (both conceptual and linguistic), which have been organised into an online platform for translators of court documents. This platform is conceived as a knowledge system which will permit the ‘reusability’ of electronic translation resources. Our approach presents an integrative methodology for research into legal translation.

Author Biography

Anabel Borja Albi, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain)

Department of Translation and Communication

Senior Lecturer in Legal Translation

Sworn-Official Translator appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

References

Baker, M. (1992). In other words. London: Routledge.

Bawarshi, A. S., & Reiff, M. J. (2010). Genre: An introduction to history, theory, research, and pedagogy. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor.

Bazerman, C. (1994). Systems of genres and the enactment of social intentions. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp. 79–101). London: Taylor & Francis.

Bhatia, V. K. (1987). Textual-mapping in British legislative writing. World Englishes 6(1), 1–10.

Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman.

Bhatia, V. K. (2004). Worlds of written discourse: A genre-based view. London: Continuum.

Bhatia, V. K. (2011). Contested identities in corporate disclosure documents. In V. K. Bhatia & P. Evangelisti Alloria (Eds.), Discourse and identity in the professions: Legal, corporate and institutional citizenship (pp. 27–44). Bern: Peter Lang.

Bhatia V. K., & Evangelista Allori, P. (Eds.). (2011). Discourse and identity in the professions: Legal, corporate and institutional citizenship. Bern: Peter Lang

Borja Albi, A. (2000). El texto jurídico inglés y su traducción al español. Barcelona: Ariel.

Borja Albi, A. (2005). Organización del conocimiento para la traducción jurídica a través de sistemas expertos basados en el concepto de género textual. In I. García Izquierdo (Ed.), El género textual y la traducción: Reflexiones teóricas y aplicaciones pedagógicas (pp. 37–68). Bern: Peter Lang.

Borja Albi, A. (2007). Los géneros jurídicos. In E. Alcaraz & J. Yuste (Eds.), Las lenguas profesionales y académicas (pp. 141–153). Barcelona: Ariel.

Chierichetti, L., & Garofalo, G. (Eds.) (2010). Lengua y derecho: Líneas de investigación interdisciplinaria. Bern: Peter Lang.

Dam, H. V., Engberg, J., & Gerzymisch-Arbogast, H. (Eds.). (2005). Knowledge systems and translation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Engberg, J. (2012). Comparative law for translation: The key for successful mediation between legal systems. In A. Borja Albi & F. Prieto Ramos (Eds.), Legal translation in context: Professional issues and prospects (pp. 9–26). Bern: Peter Lang.

Engberg, J., & Wølch Rasmussen, K. (1999). Genre analysis of legal discourse. Hermes Journal of Linguistics, 22, 113–132.

Ezpeleta Piorno, P. (2012a). An example of genre shift in the medicinal product information genre system. In V. Montalt-Resurrecció & M. Shuttleworth (Eds.), Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 11: Translation and knowledge mediation in medical and health settings (pp. 139–159). Antwerp: Antwerp University Press.

Ezpeleta Piorno, P. (2012b). Meta-genres and medicinal product information. Panacea, 13(36), 327–332.

Ezpeleta Piorno, P., & Gamero Pérez, S. (2004). Los géneros técnicos y la investigación basada en corpus: Proyecto GENTT. In R. Gaser, C, Guirado, & J. Rey (Eds.), Insights into scientific and technical translation (pp. 147–156). Barcelona: PPU.

García Izquierdo, I. (Ed.). (2005). El género textual y la traducción: Reflexiones teóricas y aplicaciones pedagógicas. Bern: Peter Lang.

García Izquierdo, I. (2009). Divulgación médica y traducción. El género: Información para pacientes. Bern: Peter Lang.

Garofalo, G. (2009). Géneros discursivos de la justicia penal: Un análisis contrastivo italiano–español orientado a la traducción. Milan: Franco Angeli.

Giltrow, J. (2001). Meta-genre. In R. M. Coe, L. Lingard, & T. Teslenko (Eds.), The rhetoric and ideology of genre: Strategies for stability and change (pp. 187–206). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as a social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1985/1994). An introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold.

Harris, S. (1988). Court discourse as genre. In R. P. Fawcett & D. J. Young (Eds.), New developments in systemic linguistics, Vol. 2: Theory and application. London: A&M.

Hatim, B., & Mason, I. (1990). Discourse and the translator. London: Longman.

Karjalainen, A., Päivärinta, T., Tyrväinen, P., & Rajala, J. (2000). Genre-based metadata for enterprise document management. In R. H. Sprague (Ed.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, CD-ROM.

Miller, C. R. (1994). Rhetorical community: The cultural basis of genre. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (Eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric (pp. 67–78). London: Taylor & Francis.

Monzó, E. (2002). La traducción jurídica a través de los géneros de especialidad: El transgénero y la socialización del traductor en los procesos de enseñanza/aprendizaje. Discursos. Estudos de Traduçao 2, 21–36.

Monzó, E. (2005). Cómo traducir derecho sin ser jurista: Nuevas fuentes y medios documentales para la traducción jurídica. In A. Sales (Ed.), La biblioteca de Babel: Documentarse para traducir (pp. 123–146.). Granada: Comares.

Moreiro González, J. A. (1994). Documentación y lingüística: Conceptos de relación esenciales. Ciencias de la Información 25(4), 202–211.

Neubert, A., & Shreve, G. M. (1992). Translation as text. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press.

Opacki, I. (1963/2000). Royal genres. In D. Duff (Ed.), Modern genre theory (pp. 118–126). London: Longman.

Orlikovski, W., & Yates, J. (2002). Genre systems: Structuring interaction through communicative norms. Journal of Business Communication 39(1), 13–35.

Orts Llopis, M. A. (2006). Aproximación al discurso jurídico en inglés

en las pólizas de seguro marítimo de Lloyd’s. Madrid: Edisofer.

Richardson, J. (Ed.). (2012). Archbold: Criminal pleading, evidence and practice (61st ed.). London: Sweet & Maxwell.

Šarčević, S. (1997), New approach to legal translation. London: Kluwer Law International.

Šarčević, S. (2010). Creating a pan-European legal language. In M. Gotti & C. Williams (Eds.), Legal discourse across languages and cultures (pp. 23–50). Bern: Peter Lang.

Schryer, C. F., & Spoel, P. (2005). Genre theory, health care discourse, and professional identity formation. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 19(3), 249–278.

Spain. Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal. Real decreto de 14 de septiembre de 1882 por el que se aprueba la Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal. Boletín Oficial del Estado, núm. 260, de 17/09/1882.

Spinuzzi, C. (2003). Tracing genres through organizations: A sociocultural approach to information design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tyrväinen, P., & Päivärinta, T. (1999). On rethinking organizational document genres for electronic document management. In R. H. Sprague (Ed.), Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, CD-ROM.

United Kingdom. The Criminal Procedure Rules 2005. No. 384 (L. 4). Retrieved 13, March 2013, from http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/384/contents/made

Wróblewski, J. (2000). Il problema della traduzione giuridica. Ars Interpretandi. Annuario di ermeneutica giuridica. Traduzione e diritto 5, 155–164.

Downloads

Published

06-12-2013

How to Cite

Borja Albi, A. (2013). A genre analysis approach to the study of the translation of court documents. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies, 12. https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v12i.235