Abstract:
Fundamental terminology and fixed phrases in the legal text type constitution
Translating a constitution, the highest legal act of a state, represents a particular challenge. This challenge arises from the need for the precise transfer of specific legal terminology and fixed expressions – the so-called terminological collocations. In the present master’s thesis, we focus on the analysis of key legal terms and selected collocations from the Slovenian, Croatian, Italian, and Polish constitutional texts, as well as their transfer into the German language. Since constitutional texts are highly formalised and legally binding documents, it is essential to understand how different translation approaches influence the clarity, legal validity, and functional adequacy of the translated texts. The chosen topic is current and relevant, as constitutions represent an important point of intersection between language, law, and the cultural background of individual states. In the theoretical part, we therefore present in detail the development of the concept of the constitution, the key characteristics of legal language, the features of translating terminology, the problem of equivalence, and translation strategies, while also highlighting the particularities of translating legal texts and collocations. In the empirical part, we conducted a comparative analysis of the translation strategies used in translating institutional terminology and established legal expressions. We focused primarily on whether translation is dominated by foreignising strategies, such as calquing and non-translation, or domesticating strategies, such as functional equivalence and paraphrase. The results of the analysis clearly indicate that, in most cases, translators employ foreignising strategies when transferring terminologically demanding and culturally specific expressions. This confirms the crucial importance of consistently preserving the original legal meaning. This master’s thesis thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the impact of translation decisions on the accurate transfer of specific legal terminology into the target language, while at the same time serving as a form of confirmation of the significance and necessity of further research and improvement of translation practices in the field of legal texts.
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