法律翻译:语境制约下的调适与取舍

Legal Translation: Adjustment under the Constraint of Context

翻译是一个跨语言跨文化的交际过程,交际的工具是语篇,因而翻译又是一个译语语篇的构建过程,语篇构建必须在语境中进行。立法翻译中,译语读者的交际目的是获取原语语篇的精确信息,即"作者-原语读者"交际的全貌,因而译者要忠实传达原语语篇信息,必须在原语语境下构建语篇。同时,"译者-译语读者"的交际又是在新的语境之中进行,译语语篇要受到译语语境的制约,因而要保证可读性。双语境制约下的立法翻译,是忠实性与可读性的最佳平衡与调和,具体翻译策略和翻译方法都是这一调和与平衡的结果。

Translation, often regarded as a cross-cultural and cross-language process of communication through the tool of texts, isviewed in this paper as a process of text-constructing in a context. In the case of legislative translation, the TL reader's purpose isto acquire the precise information of SL text, or the exact content of the'author-reader'communication. Hence the constraint bythe SL context. And as the'translator-reader'communication takes place in the TL context, the TL text must be constructed in theTL context to ensure readability. Thus, legislative translation under the double-context restraint must reach an optimal balance be-tween faithfulness and readability, which further determines the specific choice of translation strategies and methods.