Translation and analysis of the fourth chapter from „Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841–1870“ by Christopher Charles Munn

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2015-06-18

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Abstract

The thesis is composed of the translation and analysis of the fourth chapter „„A Mischievous Abomination“: Trial by Jury, 1848–1857“ from the doctoral thesis and book “Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841–1870“ by Christopher Charles Munn. The fourth chapter focuses on the establishment of Hong Kong’s Supreme Court and on the problems that followed, most of them related to the bringing of English law to such a foreign and turbulent environment. Therefore the source text (ST) includes a large number of specific terms related to common law tradition, which differs from the civil law tradition of the target text (TT) in many important aspects. The main aim of the thesis was to find suitable Estonian equivalents for these terms, some of which have already been identified as problematic in translating from English into other languages, but some of which posed specific problems due to not being used anymore or due to differences between English and Estonian legal language and culture. The first part of the thesis gives a short overview of Hong Kong as a colony and the adopted common law system. The following part is composed solely of the target text. The third part (analysis) identifies hermeneutics and comparative law as preparatory necessities in understanding the text and describes foreignization as the over-arching idea behind the translation. It also lists five strategies used for finding equivalents. These are: borrowing original terms, naturalizing terms into TL, using language calques, using descriptive translation and using equivalent terms (if they exist). If there was no such equivalent, „Black’s Law Dictionary“ (especially the first edition issued in 1891) was the most helpful source. All the mentioned strategies are used in the next part of the analysis which divides the analysed terms into six categories: courts, positions in courts, juries, offences, sentences, and other common law terms. All in all, the part includes 91 terms, some of which are followed only by the suitable Estonian equivalent and some of which by an explanation of why this particular Estonian term is used. Some of the terms included in the so-called glossary are not used in the common law tradition anymore and therefore required especially much attention (e.g. approver of pirates, put himself or herself upon the country for trial, death recorded). All in all, these terms and the chapter in general presented an opportunity to introduce the common law tradition of Hong Kong and find Estonian equivalents for such subjectspecific terms.

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Keywords

üliõpilastööd, student works, tõlkeõpetus, translation, interpreting

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