Exploring near-synonymous terms in legal language. A corpus-based, phraseological perspective

Authors

  • Stanislaw Gozdz-Roszkowski Department of Translation Studies, University of Lodz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v12i.236

Keywords:

synonymy, phraseology, legal terminology, collocational patterns, corpus-based analysis, clusters, legal genres

Abstract

This paper aims to determine the extent to which a corpus-based, phraseological approach can be effectively applied to discriminate among near-synonymous, semantically-related terms which often prove troublesome when translating legal texts. Based on a substantial multi-genre corpus of American legal texts, this study examines the collocational patterns of four legal terms ‘breach’, ‘contravention’, ‘infringement’ and ‘violation’, first in the genre of contracts and then in the multi-genre context of the entire corpus. The findings highlight the area of overlap as well as specificity in the usage of these terms. While collocational constraints can be argued to play an important disambiguating role in the semantic and functional analysis of both source and target text items carried out by translators prior to the interlingual translation, this study emphasizes the applicability of the phraseological approach to English  source texts.

Author Biography

Stanislaw Gozdz-Roszkowski, Department of Translation Studies, University of Lodz

Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski received his PhD and dr hab (postdoctoral degree) in English Linguistics from the University of Łódź, Poland, where he is now Associate Professor and lectures on English Language and Linguistics. His research interests include legal linguistics and translation, corpus linguistics and phraseology. He has recently published his new book Patterns of Linguistic Variation in American Legal English. A Corpus-based Study.

References

Alcaraz, E., & Hughes, B. (2002). Legal translation explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.

Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Baker, P. (2006). Using corpora in discourse analysis. London: Continuum.

Biel, Ł. (2010). Corpus-based studies of legal language for translation purposes: Methodological and practical potential. In C. Heine & J. Engberg (Eds.), Reconceptualising LSP. On-line Proceedings of the XVII European LSP Symposium 2009. Aarhus 2010.

Chromà, M. (2011). Synonymy and polysemy in legal terminology and their applications to bilingual and bijural translation. Legal terminology: Approaches and Applications. A special issue of Research in Language, 9(1), 31–50.

Cruse, J. (1991). Lexical semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Danet, B. (1980). ‘Baby’ or ‘Fetus’?: Language and the construction of reality in a manslaughter trial. Semiotica 32, 187–219.

Felber, H., (1984). Terminology manual. Paris: UNESCO/INFOTERM.

Goźdź-Roszkowski, S. (2011). Patterns of linguistic variation in American legal English: A corpus-based study. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Goźdź-Roszkowski, S. (2009). Using co-text to cope with vagueness in legal lexical units: A case study in the opinions of the United States Supreme Court. In L. Sočanac, C. Goddard, & L. Kremer (Eds.), Curriculum, multilingualism and the law (pp. 193–206). Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Globus.

Gries, S. T. (2008). Phraseology and linguistic theory: A brief survey. In S. Granger & F. Meunier (Eds.), Phraseology: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 3–25). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gustafsson. M. (1984).The syntactic features of binomial expressions in legal English. Text, 4(1–3), 123–141.

Leech, G. N. (1981). Semantics: The study of meaning (2nd ed). Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Lyons, J.(1977). Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lyons, J.(1981). Language and linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Magris, M. (2004). Verso una terminografia per il traduttore giuridico. In R. Temmerman & U. Knops (Eds.), Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series – Themes in Translation Studies3: The translation of domain-specific languages and multilingual terminology management (pp. 53–65). Antwerp: Antwerp University Press.

Malkiel, Y. (1959). Studies in irreversible binomials. Lingua, 8, 113–160.

Murphy, M. L. (2008). Semantic relations and the lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nida, E.(1975). Componential analysis of meaning. The Hague: Mouton.

Partington, A. (1998). Patterns and meanings: Using corpora for English language research and teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Rogers, M. (1997). Synonymy and equivalence in special-language texts: A case study in German and English texts on genetic engineering. In A. Trosbor (Ed.), Text Typology and Translation (pp. 217–245). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Scott, M. R. (2000). Focusing on the text and its keywords. In L. Burnard & T. McEnery (Eds.), Rethinking language pedagogy from a corpus perspective (pp. 103–122). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Stubbs, M. (2001). Words and phrases. Oxford: Blackwell.

Tiersma, P. (1999). Legal language. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Ullmann, S. (1962). Semantics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Downloads

Published

06-12-2013

How to Cite

Gozdz-Roszkowski, S. (2013). Exploring near-synonymous terms in legal language. A corpus-based, phraseological perspective. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies, 12. https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v12i.236

Issue

Vol. 12 (2013): Research models and methods in legal translation

Section

Articles

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).