What Can a Bilingual Corpus Tell Us About the Translation and Interpretation of Rape Trials?

Ester S M LEUNG*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Since the enactment of the first Hong Kong bilingual ordinance in 1989, tremendous effort and resources have been put to translating English legal documents into Chinese. Long before the implementation of bilingual legislation, the provision of interpreting services has remained an entrenched practice in the courtrooms of Hong Kong. This study has adopted a corpora approach to re-examine what seems to be reasonable and routine practices of the bilingual, legal system, the impacts of bilingual legislation, translation, and interpretation on trial proceedings. Results generated from the corpus show the problems of anglicized Chinese translation of the Sexual Offences Ordinance under the British Common Law system; and interpreters’ performance which is intricately bound by the discourse practices of the legal professionals as well as the ideology of the bilingual legal system in Hong Kong.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)469-483
Number of pages15
JournalInternational Journal for the Semiotics of Law
Volume28
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Sept 2015

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Law

User-Defined Keywords

  • Corpora approach
  • Hong Kong legal system
  • Legal discourse
  • Legal interpreting
  • Translation

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