In:Handbook of Terminology: Volume 3. Legal Terminology
Edited by Łucja Biel and Hendrik J. Kockaert
[Handbook of Terminology 3] 2023
► pp. 375–396
Get fulltext
Measuring the quality of legal terminological decisions in institutional translation
A comparative analysis of adequacy patterns in three settings
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
Published online: 1 December 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.3.mea1
https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.3.mea1
Abstract
Building on the premises of the LETRINT project, this study shows the applicability of a
corpus-based methodology to identify patterns of legal terminological decision-making and measure their quality
according to translation adequacy requirements in international organizations. The comparative adequacy assessment of
translations of five illustrative terms into French and Spanish in the main European Union institutions, the United
Nations and the World Trade Organization broadens the scope of previous studies of terminology translation quality in
this field. It provides empirical evidence of the correlations between legal term singularity, translation difficulty
and adequacy levels, and also of the impact of intratextual inconsistencies on these levels. The approach and findings
can be used to support translation quality assurance and terminological resource refinements.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Approach and corpus
- 3.The source terms and their translation
- 4.Adequacy patterns: The impact of legal singularity
- 5.The impact of intratextual inconsistencies
- 6.Concluding remarks
Acknowledgments Notes References
References (16)
Biel, Łucja. 2008. “Legal Terminology in Translation Practice: Dictionaries, Googling or Discussion
Forums?” SKASE Journal of Translation and Interpretation 3(1):22–38.
De Groot, René and Conrad J. P. van Laer. 2008. The Quality of Legal Dictionaries: An Assessment. Maastricht Faculty of Law Working Paper no. 6. Maastricht: University of Maastricht.
ISO 17100 2015. Translation services – Requirements for translation services. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization.
Lommel, Arle, Aljoscham Burchardt, and Hans Uszkoreit, eds. 2015. Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) Definition. Accessed 10 August 2021. [URL]
Prieto Ramos, Fernando. 2014. “Parameters for Problem-Solving in Legal Translation: Implications for Legal Lexicography and
Institutional Terminology Management.” In The Ashgate Handbook of Legal Translation, edited by Anne Wagner, King-Kui Sin and Le Cheng, 121–134. Farnham: Ashgate.
. 2015. “Quality Assurance in Legal Translation: Evaluating Process, Competence and Product in the Pursuit
of Adequacy.” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law – Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 28(1):11–30.
. 2019. “Implications of text categorisation for corpus-based legal translation research: The case of
international institutional settings.” In Research Methods in Legal Translation and Interpreting: Crossing Methodological Boundaries, edited by Łucja Biel, Jan Engberg, Rosario Martín Ruano and Vilelmini Sosoni, 29–47. London: Routledge.
. 2020. “Ensuring Consistency and Accuracy of Legal Terms in Institutional Translation: The Role of
Terminological Resources in International Organizations.” In Institutional Translation and Interpreting Assessing Practices and Managing for Quality, edited by Fernando Prieto Ramos, 128–149. New York: Routledge.
Prieto Ramos, Fernando and Diego Guzmán. 2018. “Legal Terminology Consistency and Adequacy as Quality Indicators in Institutional Translation: A
Mixed-Method Comparative Study.” In Institutional Translation for International Governance: Enhancing Quality in Multilingual Legal
Communication, edited by Fernando Prieto Ramos, 81–101. London: Bloomsbury.
Prieto Ramos, Fernando, Giorgina Cerutti, and Diego Guzmán. 2019. “Building representative multi-genre corpora for legal and institutional translation research: The
LETRINT approach to text categorization and stratified sampling.” Translation Spaces 8(1):93–116.
Prieto Ramos, Fernando and Diego Guzmán. 2021. “Examining institutional translation through a legal lens: A comparative analysis of multilingual
text production at international organizations.” Target 33(2):254–281.
Sandrini, Peter. 1996. “Comparative Analysis of Legal Terms: Equivalence Revisited.” In TKE ‘96– Terminology and Knowledge Engineering. Proceedings Fourth International Congress on Terminology
and Knowledge Engineering, edited by Christian Galinski and Klaus D. Schmitz, 1–10. Frankfurt: Ergon Verlag.
Šarčević, Susan. 2018. “Challenges to Legal Translators in Institutional Settings.” In Institutional Translation for International Governance: Enhancing Quality in Multilingual Legal
Communication, edited by Fernando Prieto Ramos, 9–24. Bloomsbury Advances in Translation. London: Bloomsbury.
Stefaniak, Karolina. 2017. “Terminology Work in the European Commission: Ensuring High-Quality Translation in a Multilingual
Environment.” In Quality Aspects in Institutional Translation, edited by Tomáš Svoboda, Łucja Biel and Krzysztof Łoboda, 109–121. Language Processing 8. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Terral, Florence. 2004. “L’empreinte culturelle des termes juridiques.” Meta: Translators’ Journal 49(4):876–890.
Toury, Gideon. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies – and Beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Beridze, Khatuna & Khatuna Diasamidze
2025. Acquis terminology in English–Georgian translation. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation / Revista Internacional de Traducción 71:3 ► pp. 279 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
