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LEGAL TERMINOLOGY: CHALLENGES OF ENGLISH-UKRAINIAN TRANSLATION

Summary: 1. Introduction. – 2. Legal Terms: Definition, Features, and Classification. – 3. Difficulties in Translating Legal Terminology. – 4. Solutions to Overcome Challenges in Translation. – 5. Conclusions.

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Abstract

Background: Ukraine’s decision to choose a pro-western trajectory of development has brought about new challenges, among which are problems in the approximation of a national legal system with EU law. To overcome these challenges, we must develop a well-grounded scientific approach to dealing with the translation of legal terminology, paying special attention to the classification of legal terminology and the difficulties that translators often face. The results of the present study indicate that English-language legal discourse needs further research and development. The process of translating a legal text presents a number of challenges related to the peculiarities of legal language, the linguistic and cultural disparities between the source language and the target language, the divergent legal systems, and different linguistic traditions. A special role is played by difficulties brought on by the legal nature of terms and differences in national legal systems. 

Methods: In this article, the authors use a comparative-analytical method, together with continuous sampling of the databases and dictionaries of English-Ukrainian legal terminology via a qualitative method.

Results and Conclusions: Lexical-semantic transformations and methods are proposed to address linguistic challenges. These are techniques such as transcoded borrowing, calquing, analogue replacement, descriptive and explanatory translation, modulation, concretisation, generalisation, addition, and omission. These methods help to preserve the meaning of terminological units with a possible replacement of their structure. From our perspective, the most expedient solutions for translating linguistically challenging terms are calquing, descriptive translation, and addition. These methods preserve the semantic meaning of the original term and reproduce it as clearly as possible in the target language. The article emphasises the necessity for further advancement in a specific direction on the subject of English-language legal discourse and the exploration of novel approaches to the problem of translating English-language legal terminology. 

About Authors

Yuliia Baklazhenko

PhD (Pedagogy), MA (Translation), Philology Faculty, Vilnius University, Faculty of Linguistics, Ihor Sikorskyi Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine 
yuliia.baklazhenko@gmail.com 
https://orcid.org/00000000-0002-9035-7737


Corresponding author, responsible for writing and research (Use Credit taxonomy). 


Competing interests: Although the author serves as one of the managing editors of AJEE, which may cause a potential conflict or the perception of bias, the final decisions for the publication of this note, including the choice of peer reviewers, were handled by the other managing editors and the editorial board members. The author is not bound by her service and has declared that no conflict of interest or competing interests exist. Disclaimer: The author declares that her opinion and views expressed in this manuscript are free of any impact of any organizations. 


Oksana Hnatiuk


Masters Degree Student, Faculty of Linguistics, Ihor Sikorskyi Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine

Co-author, responsible for writing and data collection. Competing interests: No competing interests were declared. Disclaimer:The author declares that her opinion and views expressed in this manuscript are free of any impact of any organizations.

Translation: The content of this article was written in English by the co-authors.

Funding: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The Journal provided funding for the publication of this article.

Managing editor – Dr Serhii Kravtsov. English Editor – Dr. Sarah White.

Copyright: © 2022 Yuliia Baklazhenko and Oksana Hnatiuk. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.



 

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Keywords

  • term, legal term, legal terminology, legal translation, difficulties of translation

How to cite it?

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    Yuliia Baklazhenko, Oksana Hnatiuk ‘Legal Terminology: Challenges of English-Ukrainian Translation’ 2023 1 (18) Access to Justice in Eastern Europe 178-188. https://doi.org/10.33327/AJEE-18- 6.1-n000111