This master's thesis focuses on the translation of lease agreements between Slovene and English and the contrastive analysis of five linguistic aspects (terminology, verbal tenses, personal and possessive pronouns, verbal aspect and verbal voice). This thesis includes a selection of four lease agreements as well as Slovene and English example of sales agreement. I compare these texts based on selected aspects. I analyse different approaches at translating selected texts and the above linguistic aspects.
The translators of the selected texts, most likely their authors or simply experts in the selected field, are indeed sufficiently familiar with the foreign language and the real estate area in general, but not necessarily with the legal language typical of the selected text type. As I assumed in the introduction to the empirical review, translators of lease agreements often relied on the source texts, which is why the translations contain many incorrect collocations and numerous synonyms for key contractual terms. Such inconsistency also derives from the source texts, which translators often followed. Ambiguity and inaccuracy in the translation of collocations and established contractual structures partly reflect the nature of legal language and partly result from the literal translation of the source texts. Such translations, especially between two languages and legal systems as different as Slovene and English, can lead to incorrect and unjustified translation solutions, such as in the translation of personal and possessive pronouns. Similarly, translators were also quite inconsistent in translating verb tenses and structures, as they often translated identical verb forms in several different ways or with different verb tenses. On the other hand, when translating nominalizations, they often decided to deviate from the source text, translating noun expressions with verbs. In such cases, the translators did not follow the source text, but rather the more appropriate usage that accurately, comprehensibly, and unambiguously reflects the function of legal texts. In the source texts and their translations, translators and authors have also taken into account the usual legal use of the verbal voice, whereby the use of the passive voice in both English and Slovene, unlike in general texts, is acceptable, since in such texts it is not necessary to reveal the agent of the action, and the emphasis is primarily on the action that must be performed in accordance with the provisions of the agreement. However, translators did not follow the source text when translating the verbal aspect. Although the perfective form is more common in contractual and legal texts, as it indicates the finality and completion of an action, the translators more often opted for the imperfective verb form, which indicates duration and repetition. In conclusion, the translators of the selected texts relied more on the source texts in certain linguistic aspects (terminology, personal and possessive pronouns), while in others (verbal tenses, verbal aspect, and verbal voice) they relied on the established usage of legal texts and legal language.
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