A genre analysis approach to the study of the translation of court documents
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v12i.235Keywords:
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 translatorsAbstract
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.
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
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 Deed that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. The material cannot be used for commercial purposes.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).