Investigating lexical simplication of Latin based loan terms in English to French legal translations : a corpus based study

Abstract

This thesis investigates lexical simplification as a translation universal and how it is accounted for in the English-to-French legal translation of Latinisms. Within descriptive and functional approaches to translation, this thesis reveals that Latinisms are reproduced when they are accepted and not lexicalized in the target language or substituted by functional and semantic equivalents of the target language or system. It is posited that the lexical simplification of ST Latinisms as rendered by the English-to-French legal translator is dictated by system-specific, convention-specific, function-specific rather than translationspecific features. Of all corpus texts, source-text English uses the most Latinisms, but the French translators, unlike the non-translated French producers, tend to use Latinisms to a higher extent. Lexical simplification is hypothesized as viable when languages of similar sociolinguistic and lexical power and equal status render differently the lexical entities of the source text in simplified target text (compared to its non-translation similar text).