Text Type and Legal Texts

This paper approaches text types and the typological characteristics of legal texts in the perspective of legal translation. The first part of the paper is a general survey of the status quo of the study on legal language and legal translation both in and outside China. The second part is a discussion and review of the two criteria (i.e. subject matter and function/intention) adopted in the categorization of text types and the resulted text types, pointing out the misunderstanding therein in general and that of the function of legal texts in particular. The third part comments on Snell-Hornby抯 (1988) text typology which is in close accordance with the functions of the texts under discussion. Part Four, based upon the clarification achieved through the above discussion, first proposes a typology of legal texts according to their primary function and then discusses the typological features of the first type, i.e., texts which are primarily prescriptive. The last part proposes applying the typological analysis to legal translation which is both an interlingual and cross-legal-system operation per se. The typological characteristics of legal texts have become a part of the legal convention, so it is believed that the correct understanding of the typological features of legal texts is not only the basis on which the legal translator grasps the global intention and/or function of the legal text concerned but also the decisive factor to determine its translation criteria and the translation techniques to be employed in achieving the said criteria.