On the types of translation transformations as means of transferring equivalent contents of statements of law discourse (on the material of Family code of the RF)

Abstract

А law text is a type of institutional discourse. Structural-syntactic organization, stylistic framing, functional-pragmatic potential and semantics of key lexical units of law discourse text are subordinate to the subject of the message and determined by the aim of communication. Within this article the author uses contrastive analysis of the original text and the English version of the «Family Code of the Russian Federation». The main target of the current research is to analyze the specific characteristics of equivalence in a law text from the view of different levels of the theory of equivalence – semantic, pragmatic and syntactic – taking into account multilevel theory of translation by V. N. Komissarov and the types of translation transformation. Translation transformations are represented as certain linguistic expressions, derived with the use of translation techniques related to the process of replacing the target text with occasional (contextual) equivalents. Within this research the author distinguishes some features of «functioning» of translation transformations that influence different levels of the theory of equivalence: symmetry or asymmetry of structural-syntactic organization of a linguistic expression, marked by the existence of a new lexical unit in a segment of speech, change of tonality of statements, emergence of new connotations due to etymologically represented knowledge and other inferential characteristics of the units in question. As factors, modifying the tonality of a statement, we highlight the following: shifting of communicative center, strengthening or weakening of emphasis within a segment of speech, existence of a «hidden» seme. The main methods of research are componential, definitional, etymological, conceptual and contextual analyses that altogether represent a complex approach to a law discourse statement as a whole single «pyramid».