Translation Methods Applied To The Lexical Difficulties In The Translation Of Legal Academic Texts

The thriving cultural and academic communication around the globe has necessitated more translation of Chinese legal academic texts into foreign languages.The translation of legal academic text,crucial to the communication of legal culture,has been inadequately discussed by scholars,as opposed to the translation of legal instruments and other forms of law.Through the lens of relevance theory,this report aims at exploring translation methods for the difficulties found in the translation of a legal academic text,among which the lexical difficulties regarding terminology,metaphorical words and categorical words are believed to be worthy of a detailed discussion.By virtue of such methodology as literature study and case study,the author finds that the relevance theory offers an alternative to understanding the abovementioned difficulties.This report argues that methods employed to render terms in the legal academic translation involves using equivalent terms,literal translation and annotation;metaphorical words should be translated literally if possible,or flexibly——by substituting for the original image one acceptable to the readers where cultural divergence is concerned,so as to preserve the rhetorical aesthetics of the source text;categorical words should be omitted in some cases to avoid redundancy but those carrying abstract and complex meanings should be paraphrased for the sake of intelligibility.Based on the cases studied and translation methods explored,this report is expected to provide some clues for translation practice in this field and inspire further research regarding the translation of legal academic texts,thereby facilitating the legal academic communication between China and the world.