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Article published In: Babel
Vol. 71:3 (2025) ► pp.279–306

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Acquis terminology in English–Georgian translation

ORCiD logo with link | Shota Rustaveli State University
 | Shota Rustaveli State University
Published online: 18 February 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.24197.ber
Abstract
Translation of the Acquis communautaire was followed in almost every acceding EU state with debates about the quality, multiple cases of requests for corrigenda, and controversies regarding the terminology “consistence.” Insignificant in one respect or undetected in another, translational mistakes incurred costs as well as additional efforts on behalf of the EU and national institutions. The paper examines the consistency of terminology of the EU–Georgian Association Agreement, Title IV, articles 1–276. The analyses were conducted using a custom-built bilingual corpus platform and software. The goal of this research was to continue the development of the CT analyses and methodology for the translated Acquis, as well as legal texts in general. We analyzed legal collocations or “terminological collocations” that are translated with the functional equivalents, causing inconsistencies and errors in the teleological interpretation of the law, as well as term variation. Another value of the research is that it ascertains and promotes the significance of the corpus linguistic methodology for the development of the CTS of legal texts.
Résumé
La traduction de l’acquis communautaire a suscité des débats sur la qualité, des demandes de rectificatifs multiples et des controverses concernant la cohérence terminologique dans presque tous les États adhérents de l’UE. Qu’elles soient insignifiantes dans certains cas ou non détectées dans d’autres, les erreurs de traduction ont entraîné des coûts ainsi que des efforts supplémentaires de la part de l’UE et des institutions nationales. Ce document examine la cohérence terminologique dans l’accord d’association UE-Géorgie, titre IV, articles 1 à 276. L’objectif de cette recherche est de poursuivre le développement des analyses en traduction assistée par ordinateur (TAO) et de la méthodologie appliquée aux textes traduits de l’acquis, ainsi qu’aux textes juridiques en général. L’étude analyse les collocations juridiques ou « collocations terminologiques » traduites avec des équivalents fonctionnels qui provoquent des incohérences et des erreurs dans l’interprétation téléologique de la loi, ainsi que la variation des termes. Cette étude met également l’accent sur l’importance d’une méthodologie empruntée à la linguistique de corpus pour l’élaboration de la terminologie normalisée (TN) des textes juridiques.
Article outline
  • Challenges of Acquis communautaire translation in Georgia
  • A concept in the theoretical perspective of terminology
  • Legal terminology, culture and translation theories
  • Corpus linguistic translation studies, a brief overview
  • Research methodology
  • Results and discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (61)
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