General characteristics of official documents

The problem of translation equivalence is closely connected with the stylistic aspect of translation – one cannot reach the required level of equivalence if the stylistic peculiarities of the source text are neglected. Full translation adequacy includes as an obligatory component the adequacy of style, i. e. the right choice of stylistic means and devices of the target language to substitute for those observed in the source text. This means that in translation one is to find proper stylistic variations of the original meaning rather than only meaning itself. The expression of stylistic peculiarities of the source text in translation is necessary to fully convey the communication intent of the source text. Stylistic peculiarities are rendered in translation by proper choice of the target language translation equivalents with required stylistic coloring. This choice will depend both on the functional style of the source text and the individual style of the source text author. While translating the text a translator first of all must distinguish neutral, bookish and colloquial words and word combinations, translating them by relevant units of the target language. It is sometimes hard to determine the correct stylistic variety of a translation equivalent, then – as in almost all instances of translation – final decision is taken on the basis of context, situation and background information.

Style is expressed in proper combination of words rather than only in stylistic coloring of the individual words. Thus, any good translation should be fulfilled with due regard of the stylistic peculiarities of the source text and this applies to all text types rather than only to fiction. [21, 48-52]

It is well known that adequacy and accuracy of international contract translation, its legal terminology help to avoid disputes. In comparison with other documents translation of contract is at the same time easiest and hardest one. This translation is one of the easiest because texts of contract are well structurized, they have strictly formulated standard articles. However, it is one of the hardest because origin and realization of legal systems are revealed in it. Quality of translation is characterized by adequacy. There are some cases when translation seems to be adequate from the linguistic point of view but it is inadequate according to professional language of translation. One should take into account contextual variety of lexeme meanings, which must be translated because in certain case it can have special meaning.Text of contract includes great number of special legal, economical, commercial terminology. One should avoid verbiage, repetition, archaic language, long sentences, inaccuracy of formulation, disparity (between articles of contract), usage of subjunctive mood. Translation of documents is rather complicated process. There are no subjective standards as for the quality of legal translation, but its main criterion is absence of problems and negative consequences caused by translation. Why is it so difficult to translate text of document? First of all each word has not only initial meaning but also some peculiarities which were formed as the result of its development in certain context.[22, 192-195]

Doing translation it is necessary to maintain structure of source text of contract. While rendering structure and syntax of one language into structure and syntax of another language one should decide whether to keep textual form strictly and have a risk of inadequate linguistic standard of translation or to use more free translation which might undermine legal accuracy. To solve this problem it is necessary to analyze legal terms to avoid word-for-word translation that not always explains the meaning of term. It should be noted that trying to choose words identical in form with terms in other language you are making mistake because terms can have different legal meaning. It is also recommended not to make free interpretation of text and to use moderate level of transformation. Identical and adequate translation is the main task and characteristics of ethno-linguistic barrier overcoming. Difficulty of this task while drawing up contract is that parties think and speak different languages, they also use special language, i.e. technical, economical, legal terminology semantic meaning of which can diverge in different languages. Thus, in structure of ethno-linguistic barrier there is special level – conceptual barrier. In texts of international contracts it concerns first of all legal terminology. Very often in legal system of one language there are no institutions, concepts and corresponding terms which would transmit corresponding terminology of another party's legal system adequately. If there is no identical term in one language which explains meaning of foreign term it is recommended to use one of three ways to cope with this situation: 1. Borrowing; 2. Explanation; 3. New term formation.[ 23, 139-142]

New term formation is rarely used, only when contracting parties agreed on the meaning of certain terms and there is a need in new terms.

 

3.2 Grammatical aspect of translation of official documents

         The way of translation of official business documents is opposite of literary translation where concerns the freedom of translator's actions and choices. Literary translation is more art than craft which is accounted by the nature of literary texts. Translation of a literary text is unique and cannot be standardized and obeys almost no rules.

Translation of legal, economic, diplomatic and official business papers requires not only sufficient knowledge of terms, phrases and expressions, but also depends on the clear comprehension of the structure of a sentence, some specific grammar and syntactical patterns, which characterize the style.

Our main task was to describe and analyze the special difficulties one could face while translating official documents. We have also risen very important aspect of business translation – cross – cultural theory, paying attention to it translator might avoid some mistakes. Every business document is first of all mean of communication, especially business letters – the beginning of business relationships. That is why one should be very aware while writing or translating business correspondence. As for the translation of contract it requires not only knowledge of economic aspects but also the peculiarities of grammar constructions and lexics. 'I he translation of official business papers is characterized by the solving of certain tasks; first of all is search of adequate grammar and syntactic structures. Sometimes it is necessary to use word-for-word translation to make target text authentic to source text. Having analyzed the distinctive features of Russian and English business correspondence we have come to the conclusion that even such bookish and conservative texts like documents have national specific character which should be regarded in translation. So that in this paper we tried to analyze not only linguistic but also national side of business translation. Contract also belongs to legal documents because it maintains juridical power[27, 245-248]

Thus, translating contract into foreign language it is necessary to know legal peculiarities of the country into language of which you are going to translate the contract because the differences in legal system of two contracting parties could be sufficient. From the linguistic point of view it reflects in various termins which in different countries have different meaning and inadequate translation of which leads to misunderstanding and other serious problems.

 

Conclulion

Linguistic peculiarities of official business papers have been studied as groups of stylistic, grammatical and lexical peculiarities which are determined by formal style of English. Formal style of English has such main features as conventionality of expression, absence of emotiveness, encoded character of the language and general syntactic mode of combining several ideas within one sentence. Stylistic peculiarities of formal written English imply usage of words in their primary logic meaning and absence of contextual meanings. Formal English is characterized by the usage of special terms. They all are precise in meaning and rather bookish. Among them there are a lot of words of the Latin, Greek and French origin, replaced in spoken English by words of the Anglo-Saxon origin. In formal style whom is used instead of who. If there is a need in prepositions, they go before whom, which is not typical of informal style at all. Written Business English goes impersonal style. It means there are no direct addressees, passive constructions are used instead of active, a great number of amount words, modal verbs might and could are used instead of can and may. This all is done for a document to sound tentative and tactful.

The factors mentioned make up the standard of documents' writing. Special forms help to focus readers' attention on major information and simplify process of making a deal.

Grammatical peculiarities of the documents are characterized by high usage of verbals. Its text is presented mostly with infinitive and participial constructions. Among infinitive constructions are singled out those ones with the Simple / Indefinite and Perfect Infinitives as adjuncts to active and passive (only in newspapers and contracts) verbs and the Simple Infinitives as complex adjuncts to active verbs.

The lexicon of contract is stable. All words are used in their exact meaning. There is no emotional colouring of words. Practically in every contract there are compounds with where-, here-, there – (whereas, thereby, herewith, thereto, etc.), hereinafter, the aforesaid, phrases: (it's) understood and agreed, including without limitation, assignees and licensees, without prejudice, as between us, solely on condition that, on conditions that, on understanding (hat, subject to, and others). In contracts are used words of the Latin origin: pro rata, pari passu, inferior, superior, ultima, proximo, extra, and French words: force majeure, amicably.

In our research we analyzed the influence of linguistic, ethnic, cultural, legal aspects on the translation of official business papers. The results of our investigation can be useful for adequate translation of official documents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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