A Practice Report On E-C Translation Of Quantity And Degree Expressions In Privatised Law Reform-A History Of Patent Law Through Private Legislation,1620-1907

Monographs of intellectual property law(also referred to as IP law)are research accomplishments that rely on the research of IP systems,serving as practical and theoretical guidance for legal practitioners including legislators,judges,patent attorneys,patent agents,and legal researchers.Therefore,the translation of foreign IP law monographs is critical to communicate the novel research findings to legal practitioners and researchers.This is especially the case in light of China’s proposal to unleash the potential of IP legal system for stimulating innovation and its emphasis on“establishing a dynamic mechanism for tracking the revision and changes of foreign IP laws”.Based on the translation practice of the English IP law monograph Privatised Law Reform—A History of Patent Law Through Private Legislation,1620-1907,the author investigates the E-C translation of quantity and degree expressions in legal text and then offers solutions under the guidance of static equivalence theory.Quantity and degree expressions refer to expressions “used for specifying quantity or degree”.Typical problems encountered in the E-C translation of them are as follows:(1)under-translation: the plural meaning of the plural noun is omitted from the translation;the semantic connotation of partitive constructions is conveyed in an insufficient manner.(2)over-translation: the misapplication of Chinese absolute degree adverbs,improperly enhancing the degree;literal translation results in semantic redundancy.(3)mechanical conversion: poor word choice results in semantic deviation;improper word order results in ambiguity,and translation lacks readability.Legal translation gives priority to linguistic accuracy.According to the static equivalence theory,the translator must statically convey the information contained in the source text,to the greatest extent,into the translated version sufficiently and accurately,to establish equivalence between the source and target texts.Thus,the author comes up with the following solutions:(1)for under-translation: conveying the plural meaning through semantics;explicating the semantic connotation through addition;(2)for over-translation: removing Chinese absolute degree adverbs through negation and conversion;eliminating redundant information;(3)for mechanical conversion: using context clues to infer word meanings;rearranging word order to avoid ambiguity;boosting readability by using professional terms and formal words.The purpose of this study is to provide a reference for translation practice and further research on English quantity and degree expressions in IP law monographs.