A Study on E-C Translation Skills of Rotterdam Rules From the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

ABSTRACT: The approval of the Rotterdam Rules is a great change in the legislation on international maritime goods transport and will have a profound impact on the future development of the global shipping industry. Although the convention has not yet become effective, it is necessary to analyze the language features of the Rotterdam Rules and study its English-Chinese translation so as to summarize translation skills tailored to the translation of legal texts. This paper studies the Rotterdam Rules from the perspective of Nida's functional equivalence translation theory, and analyzes the text on three levels: lexical level, syntactical level and textual cohesion.

Key Words: English-Chinese translation; legal texts; functional equivalence

1.chapter one introduction

The UN General Assembly adopted the "Convention of Contracts for the International Carrying of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea" during a signing ceremony for the Convention which was held in Rotterdam, recommending the new Convention to be known as the "Rotterdam Rules". The Convention extends and modernizes the existing international rules relating to contract of maritime carriage of goods. The aim is that the Convention will replace The Hague Rules, The Hague-Visby Rules and the Hamburg Rules and that it will achieve uniformity of law in the field of maritime carriage. This thesis is to analyze the language characteristics and translation methods of the Rotterdam Rules from lexical, syntactical textual aspects with numbers of examples in order to help to provide some guidance to the E-C translation practice of other legal texts.

The thesis consists of three parts. Part one is the introduction which describes the background of the Rotterdam Rules, the need of study the translation methods and skills of the rules .Chapter two  titled “features of legal English” discusses the characteristics of legal text from lexical level, syntactical level and stylistic level. Chapter three summarizes English-Chinese translation methods and skills of the Rotterdam Rules under the functional equivalence, followed by a brief conclusion.

2.chapter two features of rotterdam rules

2.1 Features on Lexical Level

Looking through the Rotterdam Rules, it is discovered that many prepositions are applied in the text. Prepositions such as “to, in, for” are also common seen in common texts. In the Rotterdam Rules, the use of “against” is listed below.

Example 1:

The arbitration proceedings shall, at the option of the person asserting a claim against the carrier, take place at:

In this example, parties in action( carrier, maritime performing party) always follow “against”. Looking up “against” in the Cambridge Dictionary, “against somebody” means you dislike someone for a reason or something gives someone a disadvantage. And it can be found that the collocations with “against” before itself are claim, breach of obligations and actions, which are more negative words or neutral words. Therefore, the second meaning should be chosen.

2.2 Features on Syntactical Level

Precision is a crucial factor of legal text. In order to be precise and accurate in meaning, provisions and articles in the legal text tend to be much longer than other type of texts. Here are examples from the Rotterdam Rules.

Example 2:

“Electronic transport record” means information in one or more messages issued by electronic communication under a contract of carriage by a carrier, including information logically associated with the electronic transport record by attachments or otherwise linked to the electronic transport record contemporaneously with or subsequent to its issue by the carrier, so as to become part of the electronic transport record, that:（87 words）

In this example, the sentence consists of 87 words. The main structure of the sentence actually is not complicated but contains a lot of modifiers, including:

Past particle phrase: “issued by” which modifies messages, “associated with…”which modifies information;

adverbial phrases: under a contract of carriage by a carrier, so as to become…

Present participial phrase: including…

2.3 Features on Textual Level—Cohesion in Legal Text

According to classic theory of cohesion proposed by Halliday and Hasan, cohesion can be classified into five headings, namely reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. In this thesis, only reference and conjunction will be discussed.

From the statistics, we find that there are no first personal or second personal reference items at all in the text. Items “Its” and “their” are frequently used in the Rotterdam Rules. The reason why third person references items are preferred in the legislative text ascribe to the functions and purposes of the original text. It is known that laws or conventions are drafted to confer rights and responsibilities of certain person or parties. Here is an examples showing in which condition these two items used.

Example 3:

If the carrier and one or more maritime performing parties are liable for the loss of, damage to, or delay in delivery of the goods, their liability is joint and several but only up to the limits provided for under this Convention.

3.chpater three a study on e-c translation skills of rotterdam rules under the functional equivalence theory

3.1 On Lexical Level

As the fundamental unit of the text, the translation of words needs to be as accurate as possible to ensure the correctness of the target language. For translators, on the one hand, it is necessary for translators to follow the rule of faithfulness, however, the meaning of the words should not be selected directly from the dictionary, but should select and transform if necessary to fulfill the same function with the original text. In the chapter 2, this thesis has discussed the features of Rotterdam Rules on lexical level: use of maritime terms and use of modal words. And chapter 4 will deliver translation methods on these two aspects respectively.

As the analysis in the chapter 2,“against” in the Rotterdam Rules has two different meanings and usages in the Rotterdam Rules. Therefore, different translation skills should be adopted when dealing with “against”. One is using preposition in Chinese. Here is the example.

Example 4:

SL: The arbitration proceedings shall, at the option of the person asserting a claim against the carrier, take place at:

TL: 仲裁程序應按照对承运人提起索赔的人的选择：

3.2 On Syntactical Level

As the thesis analyzed in the chapter 2, due to the precision and accuracy of legal texts, long and compound sentences and passive voice are frequently appeared to avoid ambiguity in the interpretation of legal texts. In the chapter, the thesis will provide translation methods to deal with long and compound sentences and passive voice in the Rotterdam Rules.

Embedding refers to “putting English post-modifiers( including various phrases or clauses)before the central word( the modified part)

when English is translated into Chinese so that the modifier can form a pre-embedding in Chinese.” Especially when it comes to translating compound sentences with post-positional attributive clauses, prepositional phrases and adverbial clauses, the embedding is the first choice.

Example 5:

SL: In case of loss of or damage to the goods, the carrier is not liable for payment of any compensation beyond what is provided for in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article except when the carrier and the shipper have agreed to calculate compensation in a different manner within the limits of chapter 16.

TL: 货物发生灭失或损坏的，承运人对超出本条第一款和第二款所规定的赔偿额不负任何赔偿责任，除非承运人与托运人在第十六章的限度内约定了赔偿额的不同计算方法。

3.3 On Textual Level

The thesis has analyzed cohesion features on the basis of Halliday and Hasans cohesion model  and it has been discovered that personal reference and temporal conjunction are frequently present in the Rotterdam Rules. To represent the coherency and genre features of the original text, the translation of cohesion devices is a necessary element in the target language.

As the analysis in the chapter 2, its and there are the two most frequent pronouns present in the Rotterdam Rules, which appear 79 and 31 times. Here are two skills for translating personal reference: reiteration and pronominal substitution.

Reiteration refers to explaining what the personal pronoun refers back and reiterate in the target text. Considering the strictness of Rotterdam Rules, omission or unidentified reference should be avoided and the translation should try to be more specific.

Example 6:

SL: In any event, the shipper shall deliver the goods in such condition that they will withstand the intended carriage, including their loading, handling, stowing, lashing and securing, and unloading, and that they will not cause harm to persons or property.

TL: 除非運输合同另有约定，否则托运人应交付备妥待运的货物。在任何情况下，托运人交付的货物应处于能够承受住预定运输的状态，包括货物的装载、操作、积载、绑扎、加固和卸载，且不会对人身或财产造成损害。

CONCLUSION

Guided by the theory of functional equivalence, the thesis analyzed the features of Rotterdam Rules from three perspectives: lexical features, syntactical features and textual features. On lexical features, the thesis summarize the use of “against” and the use of modal words: shall and may are two frequent modal words in the text. On syntactical level, the thesis analyzes long and compound sentences and passive voice in the Rotterdam Rules. And on textural cohesion, personal reference and temporal conjunction are two common cohesion devices. Targeting every feature, the thesis, on the basis of functional equivalence, concludes translation skills on three levels. The thesis is only a preliminary exploration of analyzing the legal translation, it is hoped that it will shed some light on legal translation practically. It is also hoped that further research can be conducted in this field so that the legal translation can go smoothly.

REFERENCES

1.Nida, E. A. (1964). Toward A Science of Translating. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

2.Nida, E. A. & Charles. R. Taber. (2004). The Theory And Practice of Translation. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

3.陈忠诚(Chen Zhongcheng). 法苑译谭（法窗夜话系列）[M].北京:中国法制出版社,2000年.

4.郭建中(Guo Jianzhong).当代美国翻译理论[M].武汉：湖北教育出版社,2000年.

5.刘宓庆(Liu Miqing).文体与翻译[M].北京：中国对外翻译出版公司,2001年.

作者简介：朱紫琳（1996-）女，汉，河南驻马店人，硕士在读，上海海事大学，研究方向：笔译理论与实践