- All Journals
- Al-Qadisiyah University
- Basrah University
- Kirkuk University
- Mosul University
- The Iraqi Borad for Medical Specialization
- University of Anbar
- University of Technology
- Al Mustafa University
- Al-Zahraa University for Women
- Alnoor University
- Kunooz University
- Misan University
- Ninevah University
- Tikrit University
- University of Al-Hamdaniya
- University of Kerbala
Modals in English and Arabic Legal Texts | ||
| Journal Of Al-Frahids Arts | ||
| Article 1, Volume 2, Issue 27, 2017, Pages 1-27 | ||
| Author | ||
| Nawwaf Mohammed Abdulla Al-Mahjoob | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Modal verbs are treated as a paramount point in legal English because they are used to convey the two basic meanings in legal language: obligation and permission. It is argued that the translation of modals in legal texts has received little attention in Arabic. As such, this paper is an attempt to account for the translation of English central modal auxiliaries in a legal text into Arabic from a cross-cultural perspective. The legal text selected to represent the data of the study is "The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment". For this purpose, each modal is dealt with separately in terms of the distribution, meaning, and the Arabic equivalent used to convey its meaning. It is found that modals in legal English exhibit important differences from modals in general English as regards their meaning distribution and . The modal "shall", for instance, is the most frequent modal in legal English, whereas it is the least frequent modal in non-legal English. Moreover, semantically, the meaning of "shall" differs according to the text type it occurs in: it expresses obligation in legal English and futurity in non-legal English. Also, one of the conclusions of the study is that the modal "shall" has no lexical equivalent in Arabic. However, when it expresses obligation, its meaning is achieved in Arabic via the main verb of the sentence. Further, the study reveals that the modal "may" is quite frequently rendered into Arabic as "يجوز" when it implies permission; while it is rendered as "قد" when it implies possibility. Finally, the modal verbs "can", "would", "should" hardly occur in legal texts; while the remaining modals, "could", "might", "must", "will", have no occurrence in the data. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Modals in English; and Arabic Legal Texts | ||
|
Statistics Article View: 137 PDF Download: 108 |
||