SINTAGME S FUNKCIONALNIM GLAGOLIMA KAO IZAZOV U PREVOĐENJU PRAVNIH TEKSTOVA S NJEMAČKOGA NA HRVATSKI JEZIK
CONSTRUCTIONS WITH FUNCTION VERBS AS A TRANSLATION CHALLENGE ON THE EXAMPLE OF GERMAN AND CROATIAN LANGUAGES OF LAW

Summary/Abstract: The subject of research in this paper are constructions with function verbs in the German language of the legal profession (Funktionsverbgefüge – FVG) as a linguistic phenomenon that is culturally conditioned. The authors strive to prove that these structures represent a challenge in understanding and translating legal texts from German into Croatian. As a complex structure whose verbal part has lost its original meaning, this construction often leads to misunderstanding and wrong translation of legal texts, which can lead to unwanted legal effects. This is well illustrated by the claim of our widely known legal translator Susan Šarčević: “Legal translation (...) leads to legal effects and may induce peace or prompt war.” The goal of this research is to shed light on the problems in understanding and translating such structures, to indicate to what extent the same structures are represented as their translation equivalents in the Croatian language, and which translation versions appear in Croatian as more stylistically acceptable solutions. The research corpus consists of examples of structures with functional verbs excerpted from the German Constitution (Grundgesetz) available on the website of the German Federal Ministry of Justice and their translation equivalents in the official translation of that law in the Croatian language by Nina Sokol. The results of the research will widen knowledge in the field of legal language translation, and their practical value is in elucidating the difficulties in understanding legal texts in German that Croatian scientists and students in the field of law encounter in their research and scientific work, as well as court interpreters and translators who deal with legal texts in their professional work.

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