Peculiarities of translating texts of scientific, literal and legal genres



The translation of educational materials and research opens up the opportunity to learn and develop beyond the mother tongue, which is especially important for students and professionals. In international legal processes, accurate translation of documentation is crucial to respecting the rights and obligations of the parties. Thus, translation is not just a mechanical transformation of words from one language to another, but also an important process that promotes deeper mutual understanding, cooperation and development.

Keywords: scientific texts, literature, direct meaning, legal text, translation.

Humanity is formed through translation. It is known that the world in which we live is internally structured into a certain system, that any action of human life is a small system in its own right, without which the whole system of the world cannot be created. The languages of the peoples of the world must also have their own system of communication, that is, a translator. The simplest solution to such a connecting system between languages is translation. From this point of view, translation can be said to be one of the factors that unite humanity. Translation plays a key role in the modern world for several important reasons. Translation allows people from different cultures and linguistic communities to communicate, share ideas and experiences.

A scientific text’s specificity is defined by its ability to store and transmit scientific knowledge verbally, as the outcome of theoretical and practical experience, to record a picture of the world from a scientific perspective, and to assist in the advancement and enrichment of scientific knowledge. The qualities of objectivity, rationality, generality, and precision define scientific style. The genitive case, complex sentences, introduction words, participles, and adverbial participles are among the repetitious, monotonous constructs that most prominently display this. Present timeless verbs predominate, and direct word order is observed. Introductory words are used [1, p.25].

The field of science benefits from scientific style. Thinking conceptually and intellectually is what defines science. The characteristics of scientific knowledge and thought that are represented in language form are mirrored in scientific style. The content and linguistic form of scientific works, that is, a particular selection and arrangement of linguistic material, embody and reflect this. Every language tool used in a scientific work is intended to accomplish two goals: to inform and to influence. A scientific text's impact is determined by how properly, logically, and clearly its topic is conveyed. As a result, the characteristics of scientific communication are precision, clarity, and rationality. Realized in written and oral forms of communication, modern scientific style has various genres, types of texts: textbook, reference book, scientific article, monograph, dissertation, lecture, report, abstract, report, synopsis, abstract, summary, review.

The most common features of the vocabulary of the scientific style are:

1. the use of words in their direct meaning;
2. the absence of figurative means: epithets, metaphors, artistic comparisons, poetic symbols, hyperbole;
3. widespread use of abstract vocabulary and terms [1, p.42].

1. The vocabulary of scientific speech consists of layers:

1. common vocabulary;
2. general scientific vocabulary — words that can be used to describe phenomena and processes in different areas of science (phenomenon, process, question, be based, etc.); c) terms — words that reveal scientific concepts.

The study of constant and non-constant characteristics of independent and auxiliary elements of speech is known as morphology, and it is a subfield of language research. Morphological elements are used to convey specific aspects of the scientific speech style. Morphological characteristics of the scientific style include the usage of less common parts of speech and the predominance of these parts in scientific style texts.

The selection of pieces of speech forms is another way that the abstract nature of the scientific speaking style is expressed at the morphological level. In the scientific style, nouns are used the most. Nouns are employed a number of times more frequently than other speech components in scientific texts. The majority of nouns are neutral, and abstract verbal nouns with the formants -ение and -ание are used extremely frequently. Examples of such nouns are use, research, resolution, and so on. Using abstract words, such as property, action, interaction, influence, direction, etc., is a hallmark of the scientific style. Plural forms of nouns, which are uncommon in other speech types, are frequently heard in scientific speech. They are used to denote:

1. a type or kind of material nouns (clay, steel, resin, alcohol, oil, petroleum, tea);
2. some abstract concepts (power, capacity, mathematical transformations, culture) and concepts expressing quantitative indicators (depth, length, heat);
3. orders and families of the animal and plant world (even-toed ungulates, predators, conifers).

Features of translation style of literary texts

A literary text is the result of a creative process, the embodiment of a creative idea; a work of art has a high information content, presenting the reader with different types of information — factual, emotive-motivational, conceptual. Literary texts reflect the linguistic and national picture of the world of both an individual (the author) and the people speaking a given language as a whole.

In any culture, texts are polyfunctional, i.e. one and the same text performs not one, but several functions. The combination of the artistic function with the magical, moral, philosophical, political is an integral feature of the social functioning of a particular literary text. Along with fulfilling a certain artistic task, the text must also carry moral, political, philosophical, journalistic functions. And vice versa, in order to fulfill a certain, for example, philosophical role, the text must also implement an aesthetic function. «Any artistic text can fulfill its social function only if there is aesthetic communication in the contemporary collective» [2, p. 180].

At present, studies of literary text are conducted within the framework of a number of disciplines. Problems related to various aspects of its generation and perception are developed not only in linguistics, but also in other fields of knowledge, such as psychology, psycholinguistics, methods of teaching foreign languages, linguacultural studies, etc.

A complex, multi-aspect approach is caused by a certain shift in emphasis in the study of text: it began to be considered not only as a source of linguistic data, but also as the main unit of communication, an individual speech realization of the language system, inextricably linked with mental activity, inseparable from the person who generates or perceives it.

Translation of literary text is a complex and multifaceted type of human activity. In translation, different cultures, different personalities, different modes of thinking, different literatures, different eras, different levels of development, different traditions and attitudes collide.

According to V. N. Komissarov, literary translation is the translation of works of fiction [3, p. 75]. Works of fiction are contrasted with all other speech works due to the fact that for all of them the dominant is one of the communicative functions, namely the artistic-aesthetic, or poetic function of language.

The main goal of any work of fiction is aesthetic impact, the creation of an artistic image. Such an aesthetic focus distinguishes artistic speech from other acts of speech communication, in which the goal is information content, informational content.

A literary translation in most cases can be either literally accurate, but artistically incomplete, or artistically complete, but far from the original (free translation). Hence, a translation can be defined from a linguistic or literary standpoint.

Consequently, in relation to the reality reflected in the original, the translation is a secondary, conditional reflection, but in relation to the artistic reality of the original, it is primary as a reflection of the latter, its embodiment in artistic images, therefore its creative nature is beyond doubt, and the same creative method, obligatory in the process of original creativity, is necessary for the creation of an artistic translation. I. A. Kashkin introduced the concept of realistic translation. This opinion is echoed by the definition of the famous theorist A. V. Fedorov: «The completeness of a translation means an exhaustive transfer of the semantic content of the original and a full formal and stylistic correspondence to it» [4, p. 303]. A. V. Fedorov especially highlights such an aspect as the transfer of the relationship of a part, a separate element or a passage of text to the whole: a work is not a mechanical sum of individual parts, but a certain system.

In literary translation, its own special laws of equivalence to the original are found and exist. Translation can, as has already been said, only infinitely approach the original, because literary translation has its own creator, its own linguistic material and its own life in the linguistic, literary and social environment, different from the environment of the original.

A special feature of translation style oflegal text is that it requires not only accuracy and grammatical correctness, but also full compliance with legal terms and concepts, as well as local legal requirements. I. S. Alekseeva notes that «the legal text has similarities with both the scientific text and the text of the instruction, since it performs both cognitive and prescriptive functions» [5, p. 216]. Based on the types of information contained in the legal text, I. S. Alekseeva identifies the features of the legal text that are significant for translation [5, pp. 216–219]. We will try to interpret the dominant aspects of legal translation considered by the author, based on the latest research in the field of legal linguistics and linguistics.

The legal text conveys mainly cognitive information. Along with specific standard terms, the legal text contains, according to I. S. Alekseeva, other ways of transmitting cognitive information. Thus, the author notes such a feature of the legal text as tautological cohesion, when the same noun is repeated in each subsequent phrase [5, p. 218], that is, nouns in subsequent uses are not replaced by contextual synonyms. This feature of the legal text, in the author's opinion, is related to the need for the most transparent transmission of information, with overcoming multiple subjective interpretations.

The objectivity of information presentation in the legal text is also ensured by «the predominance of the absolute present tense of the verb and passive constructions» [5, p. 217], «the form of the present stating tense, in the real and passive voice» [6, p. 10]. The present tense of verbs conveys the meaning of objectivity, the meaning of constant action. As for passive constructions, they are used for generalizing statements, prescriptions and allow the reader of a legal text to focus on the action or fact itself, abstracting from the «doer».

The legal text performs not only cognitive, but also prescriptive functions. I. S. Alekseeva notes that the prescriptive nature of the information of the legal text is conveyed using verbal structures with the meaning of the modality of necessity and the modality of possibility («cannot», «must be carried out», etc.) [5, p. 217]. Here we note that the modal-intentional factor is crucial in distinguishing between natural and legal language. Specialists in jurisprudence consider the main function of law to be the function of duty [7, p. 27], «the legal norm by its nature is a team» [8, p. 66]. N. D. Golev asserts the following: «Law proceeds from the need to force individual members of society to obey general social norms, and all its components, including linguistic ones, are subordinated to this function. It follows from this that the leading intentionality of legal texts is the will of the legislator, and the leading modality is imperative (command) [9, pp. 6–37]».

Among the dominant systemic features of a legal text, I. S. Alekseeva highlights «the completeness and diversity of syntactic structures, types of logical connections, the predominance of structures with the meaning of condition and cause, the abundance of homogeneous sentence members and homogeneous subordinate clauses», the author notes that in translation all the rules of formal logic must be observed when constructing structures [5, p. 219]. The legal language, as V. B. Isakov notes, is characterized by simplicity and reliability of grammatical constructions that exclude ambiguity [8, pp. 65–80]. Thus, the variety of syntactic structures should be subordinated to the feature of linguistic clarity of expression in all legal documents.

A feature of the legal text, such as the absence of abbreviations, is also associated with the task of conveying information as fully as possible. I. S. Alekseeva: «The compressiveness of the legal text is not typical. It is not characterized by abbreviations, brackets, or numeric symbols. Numerals, as a rule, are conveyed by words» [5, p. 218]. The legal text contains not only cognitive information. I. S. Alekseeva draws attention to the fact that the legal text conveys emotional information, which is contained in legal terms with archaic coloring. The use of archaic terms in the legal text «creates a high-style flavor («dismissal from office», «home is inviolable», etc.)». According to the author, «the emotional connotation of a legal text is associated with its high status in society and reflects the attitude of people towards it» [5, p. 218]. The listed features of the legal text, which convey cognitive and emotional information in the legal text, are the dominant systemic features that should be paid attention to in translation. The pre-translation analysis will reveal the representation of these features in each specific text.

The language of law is heterogeneous, it combines several sublanguages: the language of legislation, the language of by-laws, the language of law enforcement practice (also divided into several types), the language of legal science, the language of legal education, the language of legal journalism, etc. [8, p.75]. Thus, when analyzing the original text, it seems necessary to determine the subgenre of the legal text, and the choice of a translation strategy for this legal text will depend on this.

Texts of various legal fields have their own specifics of translation. M. M. Mushinina writes the following about this: «Translation difficulties arise more often if the translated text belongs to a field in which the national and regional features of the legal system are more pronounced (for example, procedural law, family law, administrative structure). On the contrary, texts from legal fields based on international exchange and cooperation are easier to translate (for example, commercial law, banking law, consumer protection). The latter can be said about some areas of law that are equally developing and emerging in states that are at approximately the same level of socio-economic development (for example, environmental law)» [10, p. 28].

In conclusion, scientific texts often have complex grammatical structures, so it's recommended to break sentences into smaller, meaningful parts or simple sentences to make translation more efficient without altering the meaning. In contrast, literary translation requires a deep understanding of the original text's emotional intensity, imagery, and authorial originality. Literary translators must go beyond literal translation; they need creativity and a broad perspective to accurately convey the atmosphere and nuances of the original work. A translator in this field must be both a skilled language expert and an artist, as a rigid, literal approach would fail to capture the richness of the text. Legal translation, on the other hand, involves specific challenges, such as handling legal terminology, interpreting its meaning, and maintaining clarity in syntactic structures. Legal texts often have a highly formal, neutral tone and require precision. The translation must adhere to strict linguistic and extralinguistic factors, including the use of unambiguous terminology, the present tense, and passive voice. Factors such as the text’s legal scope, subgenre, and degree of legitimization also play a crucial role in legal translation. Proper analysis and a comprehensive understanding of both the legal context and the language are essential for successful legal translation.

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