The Application Of Thematic Structure In Legal Translation

With China’s accession to WTO and speed up the process of opening up, legal Englishtranslation plays an increasingly important role in social life.As one kind of practical writing translations, legal translations hold unique expression patternand rules, which distinguish legal translation with other types of translations. Four most importantfeatures of legal English are: formality, precision, professionalism and objectivism."Theme" and "Rheme" are the two important concepts in discourse function of systemicfunctional linguistics. The thematic structure shows the discourse structure and rhetorical intent,which plays a key role for the translator to understand the information in the distribution of discourse.This paper is mainly based on the theory on the importance of the main structure in the discoursewhich domestic and foreign scholars discussed. Using main state structure theory and by analyzingthe English version of "Basic Law", the paper compares the internal structure of English and Chineselegal discourse, and explore the thematic progressions in legal discourse translation, hoping toprovide some ideas and methods in legal discourse,,particular in complex sentences.Based on the theory of thematic structure, Legal texts’ features of the genre and subject the fourabove-mentioned characteristics, the research intends to solve the following questions by means ofanalyzing Hong Kong Basic Law:(1) What’s the differences between Chinese and English thematicstructure?(2) In English translation of legal texts, which thematic progressions are more popular?;How does the application of thematic progression reflect the above-mentioned characteristics ofsource text in translation（.3）What are the functions of thematic structure in legal translation?(4) Arethere any strategies to be applied for legal translation?This paper first reviews the contribution of scholars made on thematic structure and thematicprogression pattern. Then under the guidance of thematic structure theory, focusing on Hong KongBasic Law as the corpus and practical cases, it reached the following conclusions:(1) the differencesbetween Chinese and English thematic structure mainly exist in the syntactic and semantic level.From the perspective of syntax: Chinese theme is flexible, while English theme should match thesyntax structure first. In English, if the subject of the short sentence is a clause or a long phrase,“it”is used to be the symbolizing subject. It is different in Chinese. From the perspective of semantic,“Zero” information is delivered by theme in English only.“Given” and “New” information is delivered by theme in English and Chinese.(2) Different genres will lead to the different use of thematic progression patterns. The legal text,according to its language features, mainly uses Parallel Progression, Continuous Progression, andConcentrated Progression. The application of Parallel Progression, Continuous Progression, andConcentrated Progression in the legal translation can promote their precision and formality.Meanwhile their professionalism and objectivity will get a certain expression.(3) In the legal translation， thematic structure plays an import role in deconstructing the sourcelanguage symbols, helping to understand the source text and the conversion and transmission ofinformation structure correctly and guide discourse construction.(4) There are some strategies for legal translation. When the source thematic structure isconsistent with the thematic structure, they should follow the same thematic structure. Emphaticsentences, exclamatory sentences should be conducted in accordance with the respective habits ofexpression to converse and recover their different thematic structures. Chinese translation withoutsubject, add "it" or "there be" in the front of the English sentences, according to the English way ofThematic reconstruction.