“Arab tili globallashuv
davrida: innovatsion yondoshuvlar
va
o‘qitish metodikasi”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
486
PRAGMATIC CHARACTERISTICS IN TRANSLATING LEGAL TERMS
Ismatova Makhfuza Akmalovna
A teacher in Uzbekistan State World Languages University
Abstract.
This article is devoted to the pragmatic characteristics in
translating legal terms in English and Uzbek. The research paper aims at
demonstrating how pragmatic and functional considerations are important in legal
translation.The legal term is not devoid of pragmatic properties represented by its
emotional components, since the lexical style of legal documents does not remain
unchanged and directly depends on the general trends in the development and
functioning of the literary language as a whole in turn, are determined by a complex
of linguistic and extra linguistic factors.
Keywords:
pragmatic properties, legal term, meaning, variability, legal
discourse, text, pragmatic synonyms.
Аннотация.
Данная
статья
посвящена
прагматическим
особенностям перевода
юридических терминов на английский и узбекский
языки. Цель исследования показать, насколько важны прагматические и
функциональные соображения при юридическом переводе. Юридический
термин не лишен прагматических свойств, представленных его
эмоциональными компонентами, поскольку лексический стиль юридических
документов не остается неизменным и напрямую зависит от общих
тенденций. в развитии и функционировании литературного языка в целом,
в
свою
очередь,
определяются
комплексом
языковых
и
экстралингвистических факторов.
Ключевые слова:
прагматические свойства, юридический термин,
значение, изменчивость, юридический дискурс, текст, прагматические
синонимы.
Annotatsiya.
Ushbu maqola yuridik atamalarni ingliz va
o‘
zbek tillariga
tarjima qilishning pragmatik xususiyatlariga ba
g‘
ishlangan. Tadqiqotning maqsadi
huquqiy tarjimada pragmatik va funktsional mulohazalar qanchalik muhimligini
k
o‘
rsatishdir. Yuridik atama
o‘
zining hissiy tarkibiy qismlari bilan ifodalanadigan
pragmatik xususiyatlardan mahrum emas, chunki huquqiy hujjatlarning leksik
uslubi
o‘
zgarishsiz qolmaydi va bevosita umumiy tendentsiyalarga bo
g‘
liq.
Kalit s
o‘
zlar:
pragmatik xususiyatlar, yuridik atama, ma
’
no,
o‘
zgaruvchanlik,
huquqiy nutq, matn, pragmatik sinonimlar.
The pragmatics of the legal term in the context of its meaning, as well as
objective and subjective reasons for the interpretative variability of special legal
vocabulary are investigated. The use of the term "pragmatics" in the study of the
“Arab tili globallashuv davrida: innova
tsion yondoshuvlar
va
o‘qitish metodikasi”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
487
phenomenon of a legal term seems permissible when describing the properties of
so-called evaluative words. Disregarding emotional aspects is impossible because
a term is a word in the lexical system of a natural language. The term pragmatics
first emerged in the late 1930s, when Charles Morris described it as one of the
three sections of semiotics that studies the interaction between signals and the
person who uses, reproduces, and interprets them. He said that pragmatics deals
with the behavior of signals in real communication processes, and that the fact
that it deals with biological, psychological, and social phenomena observable in
the functioning of signs is sufficient to suggest that it is concerned with them.
There are several definitions of pragmatics. Yu.D. Apresyan understands
pragmatics as “fixed in a linguistic unit (lexeme, affix, grammeme, syntactic
construction) the attitude of the speaker to reality, to the content of the message,
to the addressee” (Apresyan 1988: 135). N.D.
Arutyunova defines pragmatics as
“a field of research in semiotics and linguistics that studies the functioning of
linguistic signs in speech” (Arutyunova 1990b:389). Geoffrey Leech considers
pragmatics to be the study of how statements acquire meanings in situations
(Leech 1983).
It is known that the amount of these non-linguistic factors does not match
in different languages, so the translator must understand that the object
described in the original text may be inaccessible to the representative of the
target language. Therefore, the translator must have all the necessary
competencies to convey the content of the source text in a coherent way. This
point reflects the essence of the pragmatic aspect of translation.
The implementation of a pragmatic impact on the recipient of information
is an important part of any communication, including interlingua. Any statement
aims to get a certain communicative effect, so pragmatics plays an important role
in the text of the translation.
V.N. Komissarov defines pragmatics as "the impact of the necessity to
recreate the pragmatic potential of the original and the desire to deliver the
intended impact on the translation receptor on the course and result of the
translation process" (Komissarov 1990: 210). The original
’
s pragmatic potential
is defined as "the power of the text to have a communicative impact, causing the
receptor to have a pragmatic relation to the message being transmitted, in other
words, to exert a pragmatic influence on the recipient of information"
(Komissarov 1990: 210).
However, it should be noted that the pragmatics of the source and the
translated text can be different, and the pragmatic aspect of the translation does
not always consist in maintaining the pragmatics of the source text.
Before proceeding with the translation, the translator needs to establish the
communicative intention of the creator of the text and the dominant function of
the text. This will help reproduce the pragmatic potential of the original and
achieve the desired effect on the recipient of the translation.
The dominant function of the text is directly to provide a certain pragmatic
impact on the recipient of this text.
“Arab tili globallashuv
davrida: innovatsion yondoshuvlar
va
o‘qitish metodikasi”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
488
The German translator A. Neubert proposed to distinguish four types of
texts, taking into account pragmatic relations in translation, from the highest
translation ability in the pragmatic sense to the actual impossibility of
reproducing the pragmatics of the original in translation.
The first type includes texts of a scientific and technical nature. They are
created for scientific purposes and are aimed at both native speakers of the source
language and native speakers of the target language. In this case, the pragmatic
orientation of the original is conveyed most fully, since it has the same pragmatic
interest for the reader of the translation. There is no need for adaptation and
additional clarification, because the reader of the translation has the necessary
information to understand and disclose the content of the text.
The second type of texts are information and other materials aimed at a
foreign audience, for example, texts of a foreign policy and ideological nature,
which should have an impact on citizens of other countries. To achieve the desired
effect, the translator must take into account the pragmatic moment when
translating such texts. In general, their pragmatic potential is transferred quite
successfully, since the original texts are initially created for translation.
A. Neubert attributed works of fiction to the third type of texts. Such texts
are focused on the recipient of the original, but are often translated into languages
of other countries, so the pragmatic aspect also plays an important role, but is
carried out with significant limitations.
Finally, the last type of texts includes texts aimed only at native speakers of
a given language and not related to the recipients of the translation. These are, for
example, newspaper materials, legislative documents, various announcements.
These types of texts are translated on a small scale and, as a rule, cannot be
rendered pragmatically adequately.
Sometimes, in order to achieve the desired communicative effect, the
translator has to resort to pragmatic adaptation. V.N. Komissarov identifies four
types of such adaptation.
The first type of adaptation is to ensure that the message is adequately
understood by the recipients of the translation. The translator understands that a
message that is understandable to the readers of the original may be
incomprehensible to the readers of the translation due to their lack of the
necessary background knowledge. In order to fill this knowledge, the translator
introduces additional information into the translated text. This kind of adaptation
is necessary for the transfer of cultural, geographical realities. For example, when
translating the American place names Texas, Florida, etc., the word "state" is
usually added.
The second type of pragmatic adaptation is aimed at the correct perception
of the meaning of the original. Such adaptation is necessary because in each
language there are certain objects or situations whose names for native speakers
of the source language have an "associative trail", and if the translator does not
convey such associations or distorts them, then the pragmatic potentials of the
“Arab tili globallashuv davrida: innova
tsion yondoshuvlar
va
o‘qitish metodikasi”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
489
original and translated texts do
not match. As an example, the word “franchising”
is adopted to Uzbek terminology.
In the third type of pragmatic adaptation, the translator focuses not on the
average, but on a specific recipient and a specific situation. As a rule, such
adaptation is accompanied by significant deviations from the original text. As an
example, there is a comparison: in Uzbek, comparing a legal word used for
presidential documentation “qaror” will not be tantamount to the English
combination “decision”, since it does not ev
oke the same associations. After
discussion among translators “resolution” is accepted to express an Uzbek word
“qaror”.
The fourth type of adaptation V.N. Komissarov characterizes it as a solution
to an "extra-translation super-task". In this case, we are talking about the so-
called philological translation. Such a translation is used, for example, when
creating interlinear translation for translators of fiction who do not know the
original language, or when the translator selectively or generally transmits
certain fragments of the original on the instructions of a particular recipient.
Thus, the translator chooses one of two pragmatic approaches to his
activity: either he acts as a language intermediary, or he actively intervenes in the
communicative process (Komissarov 2002).
There are five main ways to achieve pragmatic adaptation, namely:
addition, omission, generalization, specification, and explication or descriptive
translation. When the translator uses the addition technique, he introduces
additional components into the translated text. As mentioned above, additional
information makes up for the lack of background knowledge in the reader. This
technique may be necessary when transferring the names of journals,
organizations, etc. For example, the phrase "the Charter of the United Nations" in
Uzbek translation sounds like "Birlashgan Millatlar Tashkiloti Nizomi".
The technique of omission lies in the fact that sometimes an adequate
understanding of the message by the recipient of the transfer is ensured by
removing some details unknown to him that do not carry important information.
For example, the phrase “premises and accommodation” is translated as “turar
joy”, in this case, the omission technique is used, since the two concepts are
synonymous.
Using the generalization technique consists in replacing a word with a
specific meaning with a word with a more general meaning, but also more
understandable to the recipient of the translation. An example of generalization
is the translation of the word “coroner” as “mutaxassis”. Concretization, on the
contrary, consists in replacing a word with a broader meaning with a word with
a narrower meaning. So, the English word “lawyer” can be translated as
“prosecutor” and “lawyer” when it comes to the trial.
Reception of explication or descriptive translation by V.N. Komissarov
defines it as “a lexico
-grammatical transformation in which a lexical unit of the
source language is replaced by a phrase explicating its meaning, i.e. giving more
“Arab tili globallashuv
davrida: innovatsion yondoshuvlar
va
o‘qitish metodikasi”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
490
or less complete explana
tion or definition of this meaning in the target language”
(Komissarov 2002:415). Using the explication, one can convey the meaning of any
non-equivalent word in the original.
T.A. Alekseytseva calls explication one of the pragmatically significant
techniques that increase the level of compliance of the translated text with the
original (Alekseytseva 2009). The importance of the method of explication lies in
the fact that it helps the reader of the translation adequately perceive the thought
(intention) of the original author.
The metalanguage of law rarely acts as an object of scientific interest in the
field of jurisprudence. Meanwhile, the study and presentation of the
terminological system of a special legal language does not lose relevance due to
the permanent processes of term formation, sometimes taking on the character
of an information explosion. In such conditions, a comprehensive consideration
of terminated units as special linguistic signs becomes especially important,
which is impossible without analyzing the pragmatic properties of legal terms.
The appeal to the pragmatics of the legal term in the context of the study of its
meaning is due to the fact that the semiotic concept of the term, widely spread in
science, is based on the inseparable connection and interdependence of its
semantics and pragmatics.
At the same time, it is necessary to give some explanations regarding the
correctness and appropriateness of using the term "pragmatics" in the process of
revealing the semantic characteristics of legal terms. Not all authors positively
perceive this term, certifying it as unsuccessful and entailing false associations
(for example, with pragmatism). Nevertheless, the term "pragmatics" has become
fixed as the only designation of a number of related concepts, becoming the key
word of modern anthropocentric linguistics. It seems that the reason for using
this term is the need for a single name for everything related to the interpretation
of the linguistic sign by recipients. For legal science, this problem is relevant in
the aspect of studying the objective and subjective reasons for the interpretative
variability of a legal term.
Therefore, the use of the term "pragmatics" in the study of the phenomenon
of the legal term seems acceptable and especially successful in describing the
properties of the so-called evaluative-referential words, characterized by a close
connection and interweaving of subject and evaluative meanings. An example of
such a word can be the criminal law term "accomplice", which is used in parts of
the Criminal Code. The law provides an exhaustive list of aiding and abetting
actions, however, describing the actions of an accomplice, some authors use
evaluation categories, indicating that "aiding and abetting consist in helping
another person.
Such pragmatic information as connotations, semantic increments in the
text and context of the situation, symbolic meanings, has been the object of
scientific attention before, but without terminological consolidation of the
concept of "pragmatics". It is noted that the famous linguist V.V. Vinogradov
“Arab tili globallashuv davrida: innova
tsion yondoshuvlar
va
o‘qitish metodikasi”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
491
represented any unit of language as a whole world in all the subtleties of its
internal structure, in all the richness of its external connections leading to the
language system, to the syntagmatic context, to the communication situation, and
then to philology, literature, history, culture, and the linguistic tradition of its
study.
However, assuming the use of the term "pragmatics" in this field, it is
obviously said that "pragmatics" is a very abstract concept. Some understand it
only as an actual division, others as subjective assessments of the speaker, others
as speech functions, and others as patterns of daily communication". Attempting
to isolate and analyze the pragmatic (evaluative) component in the semantic
content of legal terms, it is necessary to note the following. In the scientific
literature terms can be repeatedly expressed in general, but the legal term in
particular does not contain ethno-cultural, qualifying and emotional
connotations. We believe, however, that the legal term is not devoid of pragmatic
properties represented by its evaluative and emotionally expressive components.
Certainly, it is hardly advisable to search in the terminological units of the legal
language for "everything that is particular to an ordinary word", but it is illegal
not to notice those manifestations in the semantics and pragmatics of a special
term that bring it closer to an ordinary word, because it improves our
understanding of legal terminology and its possibilities.
Assessing the peculiarities of the development of legal science, V.A. Belov
notes: "Science does not exist in a vacuum, not by itself. It exists in so far as it is
engaged in. And people are engaged in it
–
people to whom nothing human is
alien". It is obvious that legal terminology acquires pragmatic meanings in the
evaluative context of the "term
–
personality". Thus, a pragmatic approach to legal
terms is based on the relationship between terms and their users and often helps
to distinguish between the usual definition of a word and a scientific definition.
Sometimes the terminology used in the text of a normative legal act is
characterized by such properties as evaluation and emotionality.
It is obvious that the qualification of any activity as an influence on a person
and the identification of the negative nature of such an influence require not only
an assessment, but also a certain emotional attitude that gives the term "negative
influence" the property of pejorative. The study of the dynamic characteristics of
legal discourse and term usage in retrospect allows us to determine even at an
intuitive level that the lexical style of legal documents does not remain unchanged
and directly depends on the general trends in the development and functioning of
the literary language as a whole, which, in turn, are determined by a complex of
linguistic and extra linguistic factors proper.
The text of a normative legal act or a court decision is the implementation
of a language for special purposes and determines the most important features of
legal terminology. The legal term can be characterized as bearing a stylistic load,
since it is the most important style-forming element of the legal style of the
literary language. Legal discourse and individual statements form the necessary
“Arab tili globallashuv
davrida: innovatsion yondoshuvlar
va
o‘qitish metodikasi”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
492
environment for the implementation of semantic and pragmatic properties of a
legal term, without excluding the possibility of solving the problem of pragmatic
connotation at the level of a separate terminological word, which at the level of
its own positive pragmatics is able to convey socially significant information. The
term actually acquires pragmatic increments in function. In modern legal science,
poly-conceptualism prevails (and is even considered desirable), in which a new
scientific paradigm does not exclude, but complements, enriches, develops
previous concepts or simply coexists with them. This very circumstance makes
impossible one of the most frequently put forward requirements for a legal term
–
the requirement of unambiguity. In such circumstances, a legal term can be
unambiguous only within the framework of one concept or doctrinal approach.
This point of view is confirmed by analyzing the results of a semantic search in
relation to the well-known term "legal responsibility", which was carried out by
different authors at different times. Thus, when defining this term, the concept of
"legal relationship" is used, in other cases, the meaning of the term "legal
responsibility" is revealed using the category "measure of state coercion"; also,
the term "legal responsibility" can be interpreted as a "political and legal state".
Thus, the unambiguity, the accuracy of the nomination of the concept, which are
the main semasiological characteristics of a legal term, are not a pattern that
knows no exceptions, but exist in the form of a trend. The "intellectual purity" of
the legal term is hardly fully feasible. It is known that in special metalanguages
there are ideographic synonyms that have appeared due to the variety of sources
of terminology formation, connections with other fields of knowledge. However,
pragmatic (emotionally expressive) synonyms are also a reality, which make it
possible to convey not only information, but also the attitude to the information
itself and to the sign by which it is objectified.
Probably, with the development of discursive practices within the
framework of legal science (in conditions of freedom and pluralism of opinions),
the number of such connotative terms will increase. It seems that the presence of
pragmatic (emotionally expressive) synonyms in the system of special vocabulary
of the legal language is closely related to the pragmatic features of legal terms.
Within the framework of the terminological series, there is no stable (rooted)
semantic difference between synonymous units, they are often used as complete
doublets. The pragmatic difference between such terms is quite obvious.
In addition, it is necessary to establish whether, when studying the
pragmatic properties of legal terms, it is possible to use as a presupposition the
thesis that pragmatic meanings turn out to be the consequences of repeated uses
of the word in various contexts, and only words repeatedly used in various
contexts are endowed with explicit pragmatics.
Linguocreative activity in relation to legal terminology turns it into a
human-regulated sphere of language. At the same time, the impact of the human
factor on legal terminology extends not only to the field of semantics, but also to
the field of pragmatics. The cumulative function inherent in the language
“Arab tili globallashuv davrida: innova
tsion yondoshuvlar
va
o‘qitish metodikasi”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
493
determines the possibility of accumulating and reflecting pragmatic information
in any word of the language, including the terminological word. The style of both
practical and scientific legal presentation is created by units and categories of all
levels and combines intellectual and emotional beginnings. Considering that the
main role in this process, of course, belongs to the terminology of the legal
language with its inherent pragmatic properties, further research of legal terms
in this direction seems promising and relevant. In the future, the focus of scientific
attention should be terminological methods that allow not only to accurately
express the concept, but also to convey the attitude to it from the participants of
the legal process.
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Source: https://www.sovremennoepravo.ru/
