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Title The Pragmatic Function and Translation Skills of Modal Verbs in the Legal English
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Abstract In the writing of English legal texts, whether the drafters or the translators of law texts can use modal verbs accurately and skillfully or not usually reflect their ability of mastering and applying legal language. In this paper, the author made a systematic exploration of the pragmatic function and translations of three modal verbs - shall, must and may, which are the most commonly used in the different types of legal texts. Of the three modal verbs, shall is the most commonly used and most powerful one. But its usage and translations are the most controversial, so it is the focus of this paper. The author quoted a large number of examples from authoritative bilingual legal texts, pointed out some cases in which the use of modal verbs belongs to the misuse or abuse, eliminated a number of errors or inaccurate translations, gave a full demonstration on the reasonable usage and translations of modal verbs, and provided some professional guidelines for the drafters and translators of English legal texts.4635
Keywords legal English modal verbs shall legal implicton golden rule
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 2
2.1. American rule 2
2.2. ABC rule 2
2.3 The principle of maintaining the status quo 3
3. Pragmatic Functions of shall, must and may 3
3.1 The difference between “应当” and “必须” 4
3.2 The difference between “应当” and “可” 5
4. The existing translations of shall in the legal English 6
5. Inappropriate translations of shall 10
5.1 “将” 10
5.2 “要” 11
5.3 “需”、“予以”、“由” 11
6. Other translation techniques of shall 11
6.1 shall is not translated in the general legal provisions 11
6.2 Shall is not translated in the sentences with special structure 12
Conclusion 13
Acknowledgements 15
Bibliography 16
1. Introduction
Legal English, is the language of the stylistic features of legal profession. Compared with the ordinary English, the most typical syntactic feature of legal English is the frequent use of modal verbs (Li Kexing, 2007). It is normal in legal English using modal verbs to express the meaning such as legal authorization, mandatory and prohibition. In current world’s major English-speaking countries, modal verbs can be seen everywhere in laws and regulations, contracts and legal documents. Accordingly, correct understanding and translation of modal verbs play an important role in the cross-regional promotion and implementation of different national laws.
In English, there are eleven main modal verbs: can / could, may / might, must, have to, shall, should, will, would, ought, dare, need. But in legal English, the main modal verbs, or the most frequently used modal verbs are shall, may and must. (Xie Xiaoying & Ma Yanzi, 2010) In terms of translation, the most difficult one is shall. The importance of shall in legal English cannot be ignored. And the usage and translation of shall in different cultures should be dealt with carefully. When translated into Chinese, it has not had a standard and unified explanation so far. There are still different opinions and no systematic exploration about the translation of shall in the translation industry.
2. Literature Review
After long-term and deeply study by many domestic and foreign legal experts and scholars, it has formed three kinds of views about the usage and translation of shall in the academic field. B. Garner has elaborated exactly these three kinds of views in his A Dictionary of modern legal usage published in 2003 (B.Garner, 2003).