英语主要情态动词在国际商法中的翻译

The Translation of Modal Verbs in International Business Law

情态动词的多义性和多元性在一定程度上导致了国际商法语言的模糊性,这会影响人们对于法律文本具体含义的理解,引起不必要的争端。将国际商法中影响广泛的《国际商事合同通则》(PICC)(2010)和《联合国国际货物销售合同公约》(CISG)文本作为研究对象,对其中的主要情态动词"shall"和"may"的翻译进行研究,并对"shall"与"must"和"shall"与"should"的翻译进行比较,通过研究发现,情态动词在法律语篇中的位置、与限定词的共现等都会影响其翻译。对情态动词翻译的深入了解将有利于提高对国际商法中规定的权利和义务可预期性,减少法律英语模糊性带来的不确定性。

The ambiguity and pluralism of modal verbs result in the vagueness in international business law to some extent, which may have an impact on people＇ s understanding of specific meaning of the law and cause unneeessary disputes.This paper aims to study the widely-influenced PICC （2010） and CISG texts to discuss the translation of the main modal verbs ＂shall＂ and ＂may＂, and to compare the translation of ＂shall＂ with ＂must＂ and with ＂shouht＂ respectively.Through the study, a conclusion can be drawn that the location of modal verbs in legal texts and the co-occurrenee of determiners can affect their translation.A deeper under- standing of the translation of modal verbs helps improve the expectation of the rights and obligations stipulated in the international business law, thus reducing the uncertainty caused by the vagueness of legal English.