In Act Term Study

The author once was engaged in the translation of maritime decrees between Japanese and Chinese before coming to China. In translation process, the author always comes across a lot of difficulties. Thus, according to the author's practice, the topic of this thesis concentrates on the translation of demonstrative pronoun and conjunction words in Japanese decrees. Frequently using of ambiguous words is a common feature of law terms, by which one can deal with various situations. This is a legislative skill. "So no ta no (その他の)" is one of the representations of ambiguous terms that often used in law terms. As a Japanese law term, "so no ta no" has special usages and rules differentiated from day-to-day language. Japanese decrees have to strictly conform to these rules in the compilation. Then, whether corresponding words with "so no ta no" in Chinese law terms have the same kinds of special usages and rules? This paper seeks ways to solve this problem.In order to find comparable and easy manipulated texts, the author chooses two decrees, constituted from the same international treaty, as research texts. Beginning with "so no ta no" in Japanese law terms, the thesis analyzes and compares the corresponding decrees between Japanese and Chinese law terms on the basis of discussing the background of legislation and accumulation of test cases.According to the quantitative analysis of 12 examples, there are 4 types ofChinese expressions which correspond to "so no ta no"—"or (或)", "or other (或其他) ","and other (�'�其他) ",especially (特别是)" and plus an exceptive one. The disciplines are listed below:1. Corresponding to Japanese law decree's "so no ta no", there are 4 kinds of expressions in Chinese decrees. As the table shows below:2. Problems found in Chinese decrees and their revising suggestions. [e.g. 1] In the Chinese decrees "A vessel engaged in dredging, surveying, or underwater operations", "underwater operations" cannot be considered as ambiguous phrase. As a proper noun of a specific operations, it is misleading. The revised version suggested by the author is as below:A vessel engaged in dredging, surveying or other underwater operations. (The underline part is the revised part suggested by the author) [e.g. 10] The expression of "some exceptional circumstance" in Chinese decrees may cause difficulty in understanding and interpretation of decrees, for the decrees do not give any specific examples while directly using "ambiguous words" to refer to all circumstances. The revised version suggested by the author is as below:The term "vessel not under command" means a vessel which through some main engine trouble, uncontrollable rudder or other exceptional circumstance is unable to manoeuvre as required by these Rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel. (The underline part and the deletion are the revised part suggested by the author)[e.g. 12] In this example, goods carried by vessels should not be limited within "vessel", but broader meanings. The author's suggestion is to use the expression "or other". The revised version is as below:A vessel engaged in a towing operation such as severely restricts the towingvessel and her the vessel or other goods on tow in their ability to deviate fromtheir course. (The underline part and the deletion are the revised part suggested bythe author)3. The summarization of Japanese law term—"so no ta no" suggests that it hasboth the features of juxtaposition and selection, which reflects the flexibility of thisphrase.At last, the author hopes the thesis can contribute to the theory and practice oftranslation of Chinese and Japanese law terms.