The issue of translating legal doublets in notarial acts from English into Romanian

Abstrakt

My study “The issue of translating legal doublets in notarial acts from English into Romanian” tackles the topic of translation of doublets from English into Romanian. The theory on doublets outlines that these expressions are obsolete, redundant, unnecessary, pleonastic and ambiguous for legal language. Recommendations of linguists and terminologists range from tolerance to total elimination from use. What is disturbing is that theory is mute in respect of the translation of doublets, leaving the translator on his/her own. There are some suggestions regarding the translation, but as long as linguists and lawyers have this incertitude regarding their utility, any recommendations for translation are in vain. Nevertheless, the analysis of my corpus highlighted that contracting and generalization through omission, as well as word for word translation, are the most relevant and efficient tools in handling these complicated constructions. The main issue is that English legal doublets are not doublets in Romanian, or Polish or any other language, because it is a phenomenon typical of the English language. Considering this, the translator will resort to creativity, omission and word for word translation in order to provide coherent equivalents for doublets.