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Part of
Handbook of Terminology: Volume 3. Legal Terminology
Edited by Łucja Biel and Hendrik J. Kockaert
[Handbook of Terminology 3] 2023
► pp. 206–223

How equivalent is equivalence in Arabic‑English legal translation?

| Hamad bin Khalifa University

The objective of equivalence in translation is to assign equal meaning to legal terms in two languages, keeping the same legal effect based on the legal interpretation of the source legal culture. However, this ideal objective seems difficult to capture in Arabic-English legal translation because there are factors that mask key conceptual incongruence involved therein. This paper outlines the major factors that blind legal translators to the conceptual asymmetry between Islamic law and western law, namely historical shifts, functional approach and equivalence, the practice in the translation industry (translators, localizers and machine translation), as well as terminology resources (legal bilingual dictionaries). We will argue that a viable way to avoid masking conceptual asymmetries is to provide translators with well-organized term bases.

Keywords: equivalence, legal terms, conceptual asymmetry, terminology resources, termbase
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Historical shifts in Islamic law
  • 3.Conceptual asymmetries
  • 4.Functional equivalence
  • 5.Translators’ practice
    • Question 6
    • Question 11
  • 6.Localization
  • 7.Law bilingual dictionaries
  • 8.Term base for sharia legal terms
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.3.how2
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