Conceptualizing cultural discrepancies in legal translation: A case-based study

Abstract

By exploring the cultural discrepancies in Chinese legal texts and their English versions and to what extent legal and cultural discrepancies influence and constrain legal translation, the study argues that it is useful to consider cultural discrepancies within a semiotic framework. Language is a phenomenon and factor that links different cultures; the use of language is crucial to any legal system. Law, as a cultural product, is attended by cultural discrepancies when switched into other languages for the purpose of achieving equivalence. After a brief overview of cultural differences in translation, legal translation in particular, the study is set to examine the role of translation in crossing through different legal cultures and backgrounds and investigate barriers in the process of translation. Investigating cultural discrepancies in legal translation within a semiotic framework allows us to focus on certain interpretations by acknowledging that legal texts are composed with systems of systems and interacting with other cultural aspects in a wider context.

Scientific Production on Legal Translation (1988-2023): A Bibliometric Analysis

“…This is produced by asymmetries between cultures. Globalization focuses on the interconnection of peoples, therefore, the role of translators is encompassed in teaching and learning to be intermediaries in linking countries (Cheng, Gong, & Li, 2017;Claramonte, 2013;Cao, 2014;Rodríguez-Castro, & Sullivan, 2015;Vušović, 2022). b) Integrative function between methods: Legal translation requires the use of comparative law methods.…”

Exploring legal discourse: a sociosemiotic (re)construction

“…It thus suggests that being subject to the influence of "spatial and temporal manipulations" (Cheng and Cheng 2014, 165), a sign only acquires its meaning within a given context (Cheng, Cheng, and Sin 2014). Moreover, the intersemiotic dimension, which underlines the interaction between legal texts and other sign systems in a wider context such as cultural systems, social changes, economic shifts and human rights (Cheng, Gong, and Li 2017), plays a significant role in interpreting legal signs. Accordingly, the meaning of a sign is not fixed but continually in flux, socio-culturally determined and intertwined with other social practices.…”