TRANSLATORS IN THE FIELD OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION: SPECIFICS OF TRAINING (USING AN EXAMPLE OF LEGAL VOCABULARY)

At the beginning of the third millennia, humanity is developing by expanding the interconnection and interdependence of various countries. Language, as it is obvious, is the most important means of human communication. If the communicants speak different languages, translation comes to the rescue, which is an important auxiliary tool that ensures that the language performs its communicative function. So, translation training in the field of professional communication has its own specifics, and it will be discussed in this article.

In the following research contextual, descriptive and comparative methods of analysis were used on the basis of notices, instructions, contracts, reviews, commercial acts, powers of attorney, etc. in English.

The purpose of the proposed article is to attempt to highlight some of the features in teaching legal translation. So, one should keep in mind the following:

1. The possibility of arbitrary interpretation of the essence of the subject described in legal documents is excluded, as a result of which such expressive means as metaphors, metonymies and other stylistic figures are practically not found in translation. The main stylistic feature of legal papers is an accurate and clear presentation of the material, the emphasis is done on the logical side of what is being presented

2. Before proceeding to a specific method of work, in addition to basic knowledge about the subject, one should not neglect such an important technique as pre-translation text analysis

The course of legal translation begins with a vocabulary for each lesson in English and Russian. The terminology of a lesson sets a psychological attitude for students on this topic for several academic hours and for independent work

Further, at the initial stage of a translator training the skills of translation are worked out in a certain sequence, then elements of paragraph-phrase and sequential translation by ear are worked out

At the same time, the translation of written and oral speech on legal topics has a number of linguistic features should be paid special attention to:

1. The presence in written and oral speech on legal topics of special idiomatic expressions and phraseological combinations that are not used or rarely used in the general literary language (to eat dirt, to make a cat’s paw out of smb, etc.)

2. The presence of some stylistic deviations from general literary language may include the widespread use in English of elliptical constructions, especially in periodically compiled standard documents (summaries, conclusions)

3. The use of Latin words and expressions in legal texts (brevi manu – without court mediation, dato – from the date of registration of the document, etc.).

4. The presence of abbreviations, which are used only in special texts and documents (AGM – annual general meeting of shareholders, LLB – Bachelor of Law, etc.).

5. The difference of legal systems, appropriate legal terminology and its own realities in every country (a city-county in England is a county, and a city-county in the USA is a capital city, etc.). In addition to interlanguage homonyms and paronyms significant difficulties are presented by interlanguage relative synonyms of a similar kind, which only coincide with Russian words in one or two meanings, but differ in the rest (interest – percentage (in the bank), not only interest)

6. A legal document presentation style should correspond to the style of the same material in the language into which the translation is being made, however, when translating a number of documents and texts, the style of the original may be preserved in translation

7. There is quite a large amount of highly professional slang in legal English (“bear market” – a market with a tendency to lower prices, “bull market” – a market with a tendency to increase prices). It can be recommended to either to look for a similar Russian slangism or to use a descriptive translation technique.

8. The main language of global legal terminology is English, and many words are simply transliterated (“broker”, “contract”). The presence of a significant number of neologisms led both to the emerging of new words and new meanings that appeared in the “old” words. Both types are not always found even in the latest English-English dictionaries (“zombie bank” is a bank that cannot issue loans because its debt exceeds its assets, but continues to operate thanks to government support)

9. The problem underlying the teaching of translation in the professional field requires students not only to know the language, but also to have a large amount of diverse subject knowledge. In addition, students must possess certain intellectual skills (work with information), with text (highlight the main idea, search for the necessary information in a foreign text), analyze information, make generalizations, conclusions, etc., be able to work with a variety of lexicographic reference material, possess creative skills (find not one, but many options solutions to the problem, be able to predict the consequences of a decision) and communication skills (be able to express one’s thoughts concisely). In other words, the translation process requires considerable preparation and serious independent work of students. The students’ mastery of legal translation and practical orientation of the course require a lot of organizational work from the teacher and at least partial familiarization with legal English and legal Russian.

10. For each student, the condition for the successful formation of translation skills is both active participation in classroom work and responsible performance of independent work. Classroom work under the guidance of a teacher who gives the necessary educational guidelines and, if necessary, – individual recommendations to the student, controls the process of formation and development of professional skills and abilities. However, it should be remembered that independence in the search for translation solutions is the key to the formation of a responsible approach to future professional activity.

11. At the end of the training, students should be able to develop a strategy for finding resources and assess their quality for solving translation tasks, have technical skills in operational search, selection, classification and storage of material, attract a wide range of additional information resources in order to avoid semantic distortions, use reference literature, expert consultations, translation Internet resources as missing information forums, be able to determine the optimal amount of additional resources for a particular task.

As can be seen, translation activities are one of the many complex problems that are under the close attention of both modern linguistics and methods of teaching foreign languages. Translation in the field of professional communication is not just a job that requires a translator to understand the meaning of the source text and convey the same meaning by means of another language, while ensuring the greatest possible degree of equivalence of the source text, but also a special kind of creative activity that requires patience, thoroughness, constant self-education and self-development, since the basis of translation activity is a creative mental operation of a translator, and his success depends primarily on his knowledge, erudition in the field of translation, and general linguistic competence. A novice translator should strive to correct the identified shortcomings independently, which is the key to a responsible approach to future professional activity. The purpose of translator training in the field of professional communication is psychological and professional adaptation of students in conditions close to professional activity.