Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Pragmatics and Law pp 249–262Cite as

Materialization in Legal Communication in the Transfering Process

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology ((PEPRPHPS,volume 7))

Abstract

Legal discourse is in constant maturation. Legal translatability requires a high degree of both the source and target languages and of their respective institutions. Materialization is in place when adjustments and ‘deterritorialization’ (Wagner, J Civil Law Stud, forthcoming, 2016; Legrand, Issues in the translatability of law. In Bermann S, Wood M (eds) Nation, language, and the ethics of translation. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 30–50, 2005) have found a way, a ‘third space’ (Wagner, J Civil Law Stud, forthcoming, 2016) to fit the target language in the translatability process, though the full conceptual, societal and/or historical loads are not explicitly retained from their original source and may traverse linguistic barriers.

Les langues imparfaites en cela que plusieurs, manque la suprême: penser étant écrire sans accessoires, ni chuchotement mais tacite encore l’immortelle parole, la diversité, sur terre, des idiomes empêche personne de proférer les mots qui, sinon se trouveraient par une frappe unique, elle-même matériellement la vérité (Stéphane Mallarmé 1895: 228).

You can’t transport human meanings whole from one culture to another any more than you can transliterate a text (Hoffman 1989: 175).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    It does not mean a legal language formerly existed.

  2. 2.

    This technique is still used in Modern English.

  3. 3.

    However, we will note that quean has never become pejorative in Scottish whose meaning is “(young) girl”.

  4. 4.

    At the beginning wife meant “woman” in general, whether or not married; see fishwife “female fishmonger”.

  5. 5.

    An annual assembly of this at which the laws which have been enacted are proclaimed to the people.

References

  • Aitchison, J. (1991). Language change: Progress or decay? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacquet, P. (1969). L’étymologie anglaise. Paris: Collection Que sais-je?

    Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, W. (1968). The task of the translator – an introduction to the translation of Baudelaire’s Tableaux Prisiens. Illuminations (pp. 69–82). New York: Schocken books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, J. (1977). Jowitt’s dictionary of English law, 2 vol. and supplement. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bynon, T. (1977). Historical linguistics (Cambridge textbooks in linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Capeller, W., & Takanori, K. (Eds.). (1998). Une introduction aux cultures juridiques non occidentales (autour de Masaji Chiba). Bruxelles: Bruylant.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cern, K. M., Juchacz, P. W., & Wojciechowski, B. (Eds.) (2012). Whose reason or reasons speak through the constitution? International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, 25, 455–463.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dauzat, A. (1971). Dictionnaire étymologique. Paris: Larousse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dogan, M. (1997). The new social sciences: Cracks in the disciplinary walls. International Social Science Journal, 49(153), 429–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eco, U. (1976). A theory of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, G. P. (1999). Fair and reasonable. A linguistic glimpse into the American legal mind. In R. Sacco & L. Castellani (Eds.), Les Multiples Langues du Droit Européen Uniforme (pp. 57–70). Turin: L’Harmattan Italia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gény, F. (1922a). Science et Technique en Droit privé positif, Tome 1. Paris: Recueil Sirey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gény, F. (1922b). Science et Technique en Droit privé positif, Tome 3. Paris: Recueil Sirey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodrich, P. (1990). Languages of law: From logics of memory to nomadic masks. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goody, J. (1968). The logic of writing and the organization of society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, E. T. (1984). Le langage silencieux. Paris: Editions du Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hjelmslev, L. (1970). Language: An introduction, Engl. trans. by F. J. Whitfield. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, E. (1989). Lost in translation: A life in a new language. New York: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holdsworth, W. S. (1922). A history of English law. London: Sweet and Maxwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hymes, D. (1967). Models of the interaction of language and social setting. Journal of Social Issues, 23(2), 8–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kevelson, R. (1996). Pierce, science and signs. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Legrand, P. (2005). Issues in the translatability of law. In S. Bermann & M. Wood (Eds.), Nation, language, and the ethics of translation (pp. 30–50). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1955). Tristes Tropiques. Paris: Plon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1989). Des symboles et leurs doubles. Paris: Plon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, N. (1970). Evolution des Rechts. Rechtstheorie, 3, 176–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacCormick, N. (1992). A deductivist rejoinder to a semiotic critique. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, 5(14), 215–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maley, Y. (1994). The language of the law. In J. Gibbons (Ed.), Language and the law. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malkiel, Y. (1993). Etymology. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mallarmé, S. (1895). Variations sur un sujet, “La Revue Blanche”, 1er septembre, 228–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellinkoff, D. (1963). The language of the law. Oregon: Resource Publication, Eugene, 2nd ed. 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mossé, F. (1966). A handbook of Middle English. Baltimore: John Hopkins University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Onions, C. T. (1966). The Oxford dictionary of English etymology. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schauer, F. (1992). Law and language. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seleskovitch, D. (1979). Traduction et mécanisme du langage. Parallèles, 2, 7–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serjeantson, M. S. (1968). A history of foreign words in English. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelly, P. V. D. (1921). English and French in England. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steiner, G. (1995). What is comparative literature? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sweetser, E. (1991). From etymology to pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teubner, G. (1985). Materialization and proceduralization in modern law. In G. Teubner (Ed.), Dilemmas of law in the welfare state (pp. 221–249). Berlin: de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiersma, P. (1999). Legal language. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tournier, J. (1985). Introduction descriptive à la lexicogénétique de l’anglais contemporain. Paris: Champion – Slatkine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, A. (2016). A space in-between – legal translation as third space. Journal of Civil Law Studies. forthcoming.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodbine, G. (1943). The language of English law. Speculum, 18, 400–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherches Droits et Perspectives du Droit, Université de Lille 2, Lille, France

    Anne Wagner

Authors
  1. Anne Wagner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne Wagner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Humanities, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Alessandro Capone

  2. Dept. "Cesare Beccaria", University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Francesca Poggi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Wagner, A. (2016). Materialization in Legal Communication in the Transfering Process. In: Capone, A., Poggi, F. (eds) Pragmatics and Law. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30385-7_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30385-7_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30383-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30385-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation