Investigating the translation of legal terminologies between English and Vietnamese in public security texts = Nghiên cứu cách dịch Anh-Việt các thuật ngữ pháp lý trong văn bản Công an. M.A. Thesis Linguistics: 82202

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
-------------***-------------

NGUYEN THI NHUNG

INVESTIGATING THE TRANSLATION OF
LEGAL TERMINOLOGIES BETWEEN ENGLISH
AND VIETNAMESE IN PUBLIC SECURITY TEXTS
Nghiên cứu cách dịch Anh- Việt các thuật ngữ pháp lý
trong văn bản Công an

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Linguistics
Code : 8220201.01

Hanoi, June 2018


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
-------------***-------------

NGUYEN THI NHUNG

INVESTIGATING THE TRANSLATION OF
LEGAL TERMINOLOGIES BETWEEN ENGLISH
AND VIETNAMESE IN PUBLIC SECURITY TEXTS

Nghiên cứu cách dịch Anh- Việt các thuật ngữ pháp lý
trong văn bản Công an

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Linguistics
Code : 8220201.01
Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Le Hung Tien

Hanoi, June 2018


DECLARATION

I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Investigating the translation of legal
terminologies between English and Vietnamese in public security texts” is the result
of my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or
diploma at any universities or other institutions.

Nguyen Thi Nhung

Hanoi, 2018

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I am indebted to my supervisor Assoc.Prof. Dr. Le Hung
Tien, for his wholehearted assistance. Without his guidance, invaluable suggestions,

comments, advice, and corrections, this thesis would have been possible.
I also owe a sizeable debt of gratitude to all teachers in Faculty of Linguistics
and Cutures of English speaking countries, University of Languages and
International Studies who have provided me relevant knowledge.
I am grateful to all authors of books listed in the biography, whose ideas are
good references for me to conduct and develop this research.
Last but not least, I owe my deepest gratitude to my colleagues and my
family for encouragement, and support during the process of completing this
graduation paper.

ii


ABSTRACT

This research is an attempt to find out the differences and similarities
between English legal terms and their Vietnamese equivalents, and to draw out
appropriate strategies and procedures in the translation of legal terms into
Vietnamese.
In the research, legal terms are classified according to their grammatical
compositions including one word term and above- word level terms. Then, each
appropriate strategy and procedure is applied to the translation of terms of
equivalence and non-equivalence group so that TL sounds original and natural. To
some extent, the research may make a contribution to the translation of legal terms
and will be of some help to legal circle, especially translators with little experience
of doing the translation in the field.

iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SL

: Source Language

TL

: Target Language

iv


TABLE OF CONTENT
DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................. iv
TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................v
PART I: INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................1
1.1. Rationale ..............................................................................................................1
1.2. Aims of the study .................................................................................................1
1.3. Methods of the study ............................................................................................2
1.4. Scope of the study ................................................................................................2
1.5. Organization of the study .....................................................................................3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................4
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................4
1.1. Terminology .........................................................................................................4
1.1.1. Definition of terminology ..................................................................................4
1.1.2. Definition of legal terminology .........................................................................5

1.2. Translation theory ................................................................................................5
1.2.1. Definitions of translation ..................................................................................5
1.2.2. The translation of non-equivalence at word level and above word level .........5
1.2.3. Translation procedures .....................................................................................9
1.3. Technical translation ..........................................................................................11
1.3.1. Definitions of technical translation .................................................................11
1.3.2. Translation method of technical terms............................................................12
1.3.3. Translation of neologisms ...............................................................................12
1.4. Legal terms .........................................................................................................13
1.4.1. Features of legal terminology .........................................................................13
1.4.2. Classification of legal terms according to their structural features ...............15
1.5.

Summary .........................................................................................................22
v


CHAPTER TWO THE TRANSLATION OF LEGAL TERMS ........................23
2.1. Translation of legal terms at word level from English to Vietnamese ..............23
2.2. Translation of above-word-level terms by transposition ...................................24
2.3. Translation by omission .....................................................................................32
2.4. Translation by paraphrase ..................................................................................33
2.5. The appropriate strategies and procedures in translating English legal terms ........34
2.6. Discussion ..........................................................................................................35
2.6.1. Potential difficulties in translation of terminologies ......................................35
2.6.2. Suggestions for the translation strategies and procedures .............................36
2.7. Summary ............................................................................................................37
PART III: CONCLUSION .....................................................................................38
1.1. Major findings ....................................................................................................38
1.2. Implications for the translation of legal terms ...................................................39

1.3. Suggestions for further studies ...........................................................................40
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................41
SOURCES OF DATA .............................................................................................44
APPENDIXES ........................................................................................................... I

vi


PART I: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale
The Vietnamese nation has been integrating deeply into the world in every
sector such as economy, culture, and security. In the fight against crime,
Vietnamese Government officials not only introduce policies for crime prevention
and suppression but also strengthen the cooperation with other countries and
international organizations. To map out important strategies, and for a more
effective international cooperation, Government officials have to look for
regulations, laws and other documents written in English.
Thus, the translation of police terms is of great concern. However, such a
translation from English to Vietnamese or vice versa is a big challenge because of
the differences between English and Vietnamese language as each language has its
own lexicon as well as its own grammatical structures. Translating legal documents
in general and terminology in particular is not a simple task, especially when the
new terms keep created in pace with legal development. There are linguistic
differences between the two language systems and the most noticeable difficulty is
the problem of how to deal with non-equivalence legal terms. This research paper,
therefore, has been carried out with the hope of finding out the common, appropriate
and preferable ways to make the translation of legal terms from English to Vietnamese
sound original and natural. Therefore, the major concern of this paper is to give the
answer to the question: “What are the common translation strategies and procedures

used in the translation of legal terms in public security texts?”
Based on the results from the study, some suggestions are given to security
officers who are responsible for translating legal documents.
1.2. Aims of the study
Based on the translation theory and linguistic features, the study is ultimately
aimed at:
1


a. Collecting legal terms in public security texts and studying their main
features in terms of characteristics and compositions.
b. Identifying the procedures and strategies commonly used by teachers in the
lessons on English for Law Enforcement and translators for rendering legal
terms.
1.3. Methods of the study
As this study is carried out for the sake of English-Vietnamese tranlation of
legal terminology, the study is mainly based on the syntheses and analyses of some
subtle details from major reference books ans collected materials, especially legal
documents. The author will then apply the theoretical knowledge and practical
experience in translation of such legal documents in analyzing the use of legal terms
in comparison with those in Vietnamese language.
The steps of the study on the translation of legal terminology are as follows.
Step 1: Reviewing public security materials from different reliable sources
Step 2: Collecting English legal terms from these materials
Step 3: Classifying collected terms into two groups: one-word terms and aboveword-level terms.
Step 4: Analyzing the translation of typical examples of the above-mentioned
groupsin order to find out the common strategies and procedures applied in the
translation of legal terms.
Step 5: Suggesting some implications for the translation of legal terms.
1.4. Scope of the study

Since the research serves the need of the teaching of English for Law
Enforcement and rendering English legal terms, it mainly focuses on legal terms
found in Law Enforcement English textbooks, newspapers, legal acts,...
However, the study cannot cover all terms which appear in these sources, only
typical terms with high frequency of occurrence are chosen. Because of the
characteristics of texts and the language in the materials of public security field,
most of the terms are one word and above-word-level terms. It is the author‟s
2


purpose to conduct a study on the translation of

legal termsatword-leveland

above-word-levelterms based on the grammatical and semantic features of the terms
investigated.
1.5. Organization of the study
The thesis consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion. The first part, Introduction outlines rationale, scope, aims, method and
design of the research. The second part entitled Development is divided into two
chapters. Chapter One refers to theories which serve as the foundation for this study
and presents the typical features of legal terms and their structural patterns. Chapter
Two, The translation of legal terms offers common procedures and strategies for
the translation of the terms. Finally, Conclusion summarizes all the research
findings.
Ultimately, references, data sources and appendixes are indispensable parts
of the study.

3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1. Terminology
1.1.1. Definition of terminology
Valeontis and Mantzari (2006: 1) says “terminology has a twofold meaning:
(1) it is the discipline concerned with the principles and methods governing the
study of concepts and their designations (terms, names, symbols) in any subject
field, and the job of collecting, processing, and mangaging relevant data and (2) the
set of terms belonging to the special language of an individual subject field”.
In practice, it is more familiar with the second meaning of the term terminology,
which is considered “the set of special words belonging to a science, an art, an
author, or a social entity”; for example, “the terminology of law” or “the
terminology of culture”. In another word, a term, or terminology unit, is the same or
designation of a concept in a particular subject field.
In Vietnam, many studies on vocabulary as well as terminology have been
made by famous linguists such as Nguyen Van Tu, Do Huu Chau, Nguyen Thien
Giap, and Nguyen Huu Quynh.
Nguyen Van Tu (1968) states that terminology consists of fixed words or phrases
which denote concepts of science, manufacturing fields, or culture and so on. Similarly,
Do Huu Chau (1998) says that terminology includes specialist words used within a
scientific field, a profession or any technical field. Besides, Nguyen Thien Giap (1999)
defines it as a part of special lexis of a language. It consists of fixed words or groups of
words which accurately name concepts and subjects belonging to different specialized
fields of human beings. In addition, Nguyen Huu Quynh (2007:104) defines a scientific
term as a word or a phrase which designates a concept in fields of science (social
science, natural science, technical science). He also states that generally a scientific
term has a certain phonetic form and designates a concept with one meaning
(monosemy) which is not the same as the meaning of other terms)

From the above-mentioned definitions, terminology can be considered fixed
words or phrases which accurately denote concepts of a particular subject fields.
4


1.1.2. Definition of legal terminology
Legal terminology is the set of technical words or expressions used in the legal field
and of particular meanings.
1.2. Translation theory
1.2.1. Definitions of translation
In “The theory and practice of translation”, Nida defined: “Translation
consists in reproducing the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the
SL message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (Nida and
Taber 1974:12).
In addition, there are different definitions of translation:
1. Translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a
representation of an equivalent text in a second language (Bell, 1991, p. 20).
2. Translation is the expression in another language or (target language) of what
have been expressed in another source language, preserving semantic and stylistic
equivalences (Bell, 1991, p. 5).
3. Translation is a communicative process which takes place within a social context
(Hatim & Mason, 1990, p. 3).
4. Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way
that the author intended the text. Common senses tell that this ought to be simple, as
one ought to be able to say something as well in one language as in another. On the
other hand, you may see it as complicated, artificial and fraudulent, since by using
another language, you are pretending to be someone you are not. Hence, in many
types of text (legal, administrative, dialect, local, cultural) the temptation is to
transfer as many source language words to the target language as possible
(Newmark, 1988, p.127).

1.2.2. The translation of non-equivalence at word level and above word level
1.2.2.1. Non-equivalence at word level
According to Baker (1992), non-equivalence at word level means the TL has no
direct equivalent for a word in the TL. He also distinguished 11 types of non5


equivalence and suggests that each type of non-equivalence requires different
strategies, some very straightforward, others more involved and difficult to handle.
The 11 types of non-equivalence are as follows:
a. Culture-specific concepts
b. The SL concept is not lexicalised in the TL.
c. The SL word is semantically complex
d. The SL and TL make different distinctions in meaning
e. The TL lacks a super-ordinate
f. The TL lacks a specific term (hyponym)
g. Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective
h. Differences in expressive meaning
i. Differences in form
j. Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms
k. The use of loan words in the source text
To deal with non-equivalence at word level, Baker listed the following strategies
used by professional translators
1. Translating by a more specific word.
In some cases, it may be necessary to use a more specific word to translate a SL
word to a TL word. This strategy usually involves in selecting one word among
several ones because there may be a SL word whose meaning can be expressed by
several TL words.
2. Translating by a more general word
In some cases, the translators have to use a more general word since the specific
word in the SL does not exist in the TL.

3. Translating by cultural substitution
This strategy often involves in replacing culture-specific items by a TL item which
does not ha ve the same propositional meaning, but is likely to have the same impact on

6


the target readers. This strategy is beneficial to readers of the TL since they can imagine
what that item looks like in their culture.
4. Translating using a loan word or loan word plus explanation
This strategy is useful when the translator has to deal with concepts or ideas that
are new to the audience, culture-specific items and proper names of diseases or
medicines.
5. Translating by paraphrase
This strategy can be used when a word or phrase in the SL does not exist in the
TL, or when a when a term in TL does not include all the meanings conveyed by
the SL term for the same concept.
6. Translating by omission
Although some theorists may object to this strategy since it is too drastic, it is
sometimes appropriate to omit some words or phrases that are not essential to the
meaning or the impact of the text
7. Translating by illustration
This is a useful strategy when a word which lacks an equivalent in the TL
refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated. However, this strategy can
hardly be found in translation.
1.2.2.2. Non-equivalence above word level
Besides having individual meaning, words, almost always occur in the
company of others words to construct meaning. Because of the differences lexical
patterning or source language and target language, translator usually find difficulties
in translating. Lexical patterning deals with collocation and idiom and fix

expression.In the following section, the study will concentrate on this type of lexical
patterning, namely collocation and the difficulties encountered by translators as a
result of differences in collocation of the source and target languages.
1.2.2.2.1. Definitions of collocation
Baker (1992:14) defines collocation as „semantically arbitrary restrictions
which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of a word‟. Then
Baker added that collocation is “the tendency of certain words to co-occur regularly
7


in a given language” (1992:47 ). Robin (1989:65) proposes that collocation is the
habitual association of a word in a language with other particular words in
sentences. Thus, collocation is refered to the structural and syntagmatic relation
among words in the same sentence or text.
Collocation, therefore, is said to be concerned with how words go together,
i.e. the company that a word keeps contributes to its interpretation.
1.2.2.2.2. Some collocation problems in translation
Differences in the collocational patterning of the SL and TL can pose various
problems in translation. Some of these problems are more difficult to handle with
than others. The following are some of the more common problems that are often
encountered in translating non-literary texts
a) The engrossing effect of source text patterning
It is easy to assume that as long as a collocation can be found in the TL
which conveys the same or similar meaning to that of the source collocation,the
translator will not be confused by differences in the surface patterning between the
two. For example, strong tea is literally „dense tea‟ in Vietnamese.
b) The tension between accuracy and naturalness
In rendering unmarked source-language collocations into his/her target
language, a translator ideally aims at producing a collocation which is typical in the
target language while, at the same time, preserving the meaning associated with the

source collocation. This ideal cannot always be achieved. Translation often involves
a tension – a difficult choice between what is typical and what is accurate.
The nearest acceptable collocation in the target language will often involve some
change in meaning. This change in meaning may be minimal, or not particularly
significant in a given context. The nearest acceptable collocation which can replace
hard drink in Vietnamese is “alcoholic drinks”. But hard drink refers only to spirits
in English, for example whisky, gin, and brandy. It does not include other alcoholic
drinks such as beer, lager, or sherry. The Vietnamese collocation, however, refers to
any alcoholic drink, including beer, lager, sherry, as well as spirits. The meanings of
the two collocations therefore do not map completely.
c) Culture-specific collocations
8


Some collocations reflect the cultural setting in which they occur. If the
cultural settings of the source and target languages are significantly different, there
will be instances when the source text will contain collocations which convey what
to the target reader would be unfamiliar associations of ideas. Such culture-specific
collocations express ideas previously unexpressed in the target language. Like
culture-specific words, they point to concepts which are not easily accessible to the
target reader.
1.2.3. Translation procedures
Translation procedures, as stated by Newmark (1995: 81), are used for the
translation of sentences and the smaller units of language. The followings are the
translation procedures proposed by Newmark (1995: 81-93).
1.2.4.1. Literal translation
Literal translation, or word for word translation, relies on the direct transfer
of a text from SL into a grammatical and meaningful text in TL. Using this
procedure, the translator focuses predominantly on adhering to the linguistic rules
of the target language. In practice, literal translation occurs most commonly when

translating between two languages of the same family, such as French and Italian,
and works most efficiently when they also share the same culture. Despite
seemingly limited scope of applications, this procedure is among preferred ways of
translating in those functional contexts where more emphasis is laid on preserving
the verbatim meaning of the original text than attaining stylistic elegance, which is
often the case with legal translation
1.2.4.2. Transference
It is the process of transferring an SL word to a TL text. It includes
transliteration and is the same as what Harvey (2003) named “transcription”. It is
also called Borrowing, Transliteration, or Loan word (Delisle et al., 1999). For
example, the Vietnamese language borrows many French words like pedal, guidon,
accus, artichaut, amateur, and ampere, and so on.
9


1.2.4.3. Naturalization
This procedure succeeds transference and adapts the SL word first to the normal
pronunciation of the TL, then to its normal morphology. Example: performance
(English) performant (Germany).
1.2.4.4. Cultural equivalence
This is an approximate translation where an SL cultural word is translated by
a TL cultural word. These are approximate cultural equivalents. Their translation
uses are limited; since they are not accurate, but this procedure can be used in
general texts, publicity and propaganda, as well as for brief explanation to TL
readers who are ignorant of the relevant SL culture. This procedure can give greater
pragmatic impact than culturally neutral words.
1.2.4.5. Functional equivalent
This is also a common procedure, applied to cultural word of the SL required
when the TL required a cultural free word or a new specific term in TL. So, it
neutralizes or generalizes the SL word. When a culturally equivalent term in TL is

not possible to find a cultural word of SL, this procedure is the most accurate way
of translating. We can also extent the procedure to translate the technical term
which has no equivalent in TL. This procedure may be occasionally used if the term
is of little importance in drama as they can create an immediate effect. This
procedure occupies the middle area between the language and culture of SL and the
language and culture of TL. If the functional equivalent is practiced one to one then,
it becomes undertranslation. If practiced one to two, it may be an over translation.
1.2.4.6. Descriptive equivalent
In translation, description has to be weighed sometimes against
function. Description and function are essential elements in explanation and,
therefore in translation.
1.2.4.7. Shifts or transpositions
Transposition, or shift as Catford calls it, reflects the grammatical change
that occurs in translation from SL to TL. According to Newmark, it involves a
10


change in the grammar from SL to TL, for instance, (i) change from singular to
plural, (ii) the change required when a specific SL structure does not exist in the TL,
(iii) change of an SL verb to a TL word, (iv) change of an SL noun group to a TL
noun and so forth.
1.2.4.8. Recognized translation
It occurs when the translator“normally uses the official or the generally
accepted translation of any institutional term”(Newmark, 1988b:89)
1.2.4.9. Paraphrase
This is an amplification or explanation of the meaning of a segment of a text.
It is used in an “anonymous” text when it is poorly written or when it had important
implications and omissions. One should be careful in listing paraphrases as a
translation procedure, because this word is often used to describe free translation.
The procedure is the minimal recasting of an ambiguous or obscure sentence, in

order to clarify it.
1.2.4.10. Omission
This strategy may sound rather drastic, but infact it does no harm to omit
translating a word or expression in some contexts. If the meaning convey by a
particular

item

or

expression

is

not

vital

enough

to

the

development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy
explanations, translators can and often do simply omit translating the word
or expression in question
1.2.4.11. Couplets
It occurs when the translator combines two different procedures (Newmark,
1988b:91)

1.3. Technical translation
1.3.1. Definitions of technical translation
Sofer (1999) claims that the translation of a text may be called technical
when it requires specialized terms in a particular field. Newmark (1995, p.151)
argued that “Technical translation is one part of specialized translation; institutional
11


translation, the areas of politics, commerce, finance, government etc., is the other.”
He also added “Technical translation is primary distinguished from other forms of
translation by terminologies, although terminology usually make up about 5-10% of
a text.” Thus, dealing with terminologies is important in translation and is a part of
technical translation.
1.3.2. Translation method of technical terms
Newmark suggests some useful steps for technical translation. First of all, it
is necesssary to read it first to understand it and then to assess it, its degree of
formality, its intention, the possible cutural and professional differences between
the readership and the original one. The translator also needs to account for
everything, every word, every figure, letter and punctuation mark.
During the process of translation there may be words and structures
containing existential problems. Therefore, Newmark recommends that translators
should pay attention to words with prefixes or suffixes. Also, it is essential for
translators to take into account semi-empty words; verbs required a recasting of the
TL sentence and pun words.
1.3.3. Translation of neologisms
1.3.3.1. Definitions of neologisms
As Newmark (1988) claimed, “neologisms can be defined as newly coined
lexical units or existing lexical units that acquire a new sense”. The main reason that
leads to the arrival of neologisms is that new objects and processes are continually
created in technology, new ideas and variations on feeling come to the media and

new terms from the social science, slang, dialect and transferred words come into
the main stream of language. Newmark also proposes types of neologisms and the
translation of each type.
1.3.3.2. Types of neologisms
- Old words with new senses: words, collocation
- New coinages
- Derived words
12


- Abbreviations
- Collocations
- Eponyms
- Phrasal words
- Transferred words
- Acronyms
- Pseudo-neologisms
- The creation of neologisms
1.4. Legal terms
1.4.1. Features of legal terminology
Legal terminologies are linguistic items and they also have their own features
which distinguish legal terminologies from the other items of language.
1.4.1.1.Accurateness
Terminologies in any field are obligated be accurate particularly in public
security texts. There are two reasons for accuracy of these legal terminologies. First
and foremost, they are often used in policies and reports which relate to legal issues,
operations, and counter- measures. Thus, they can not be inaccurate or ambiguous.
One terminology shall have only one way to interpret. Secondly, terminologies
convey concepts in public security that are widely accepted so the terminologies are
obligated to be fixed in terms of meaning and form.

For instant, the term police (cảnh sát) refers to only one concept that denotes
the civil force of a national or local government, responsible for the prevention and
detection of crime and the maintenance of public order.
Similarly, there are endless examples of single meaning terms such as violence (bạo
lực), owner (người sở hữu), etc. that respectively refer to a single concept.
1.4.1.2. Systematism
Each of scientific field has its own system of limited and accurate
concepts expressing through its system of terminologies and public security is
not an exception. Each term belongs to the system of security-related
terminologies. One term relates to other terms in the system. The semantic value
13


of a term is determined by its relation with others in the same field, once isolated
the term does not hold that value. An illustration is the terminology “seeking”
means the action to acquire drug only when it comes together with other terms of
drug in a certain context.
The term “bill” means “a written suggestion for a new law that is presented
to a country‟s parliament so that its members can discuss it” only when it belongs to
system of legislative terms.
1.4.1.3. Internationalism
Public security related problem has been a great challenge to the whole
world. Although people use different languages, they share common concepts in
security problem. The terminologies may be expressed differently due to the
distinction of languages; however, their meanings still the same amongst
uncommon languages.
For example: in English we have the term “drug seeking”. In Vietnamese we
have “hành vi chiếm dụng ma túy”. They are not expressed identically but they both
identify actions to acquire drugs, which include buying from licit supplies (e.g.
liquor outlet, cigarette vendors), illicit drug supplies or dealers, forging medical

prescriptions or presenting to medical practitioners in an attempt to acquire
prescription medication for non-medicaluse.
1.4.1.4. Nationalism
Legal terms are made up from the material of the language that contains
them. For instance, to denote a weapon shooting pepper spray rounds instead of
traditional lead bullets, English language uses the term pepper gun whereas
Vietnamese uses súng hơi cay with its own way of word formation, spelling,
pronouncing andwriting.
1.4.1.5. Popularity
Popular terminologies are offered and used in propaganda. They appear in
legal policies, notes, or guide books and so on. These terminologies, in other hand,
are more understandable to people with common academic education and
knowledge
14


Example:
freedom

tự do

terrorism

khủng bố

police

công an

1.4.2. Classification of legal terms according to their structural features

Legal terms can be classified into two groups according to their grammatical
composition including one-word terms and above-word-level terms.
1.4.2.1.One-word terms and acronyms
English technical or scientific terms, which are formed of one word, hold a
remarkable proportion among others. In the field of legal terminology, one-word
term account for a large percentage which is usually nouns or verbs and acronyms.
1.4.2.1.1. One-word terms which appear in the form of a verb
The legal terms in the form of a verb represent a large proportion of all terms
found in public security texts. For example: enact, contravene, assemble, amend,
participate, recognize, organize, commit, warrant, proceed, entitle, appeal,
approve, arrest, authorize, empower, disperse, etc.
A typical feature of these terms is that they are changeable; that is, they can
appear either in the form of a verb or a noun at different positions in the same text
or in the same sentence to avoid reiteration. Most of these one-verb terms have their
nouns to be used as alternatives:
Verbs

Nouns

assemble

assembly (cuộc tụ tập)

amend

amendment (sự sửa đổi)

recognize

recognition (sự công nhận)

empower

power (thẩm quyền)

authorize

authorization (sự uỷ quyền)

approve

approval (sự thông qua)

regulate

regulation (quy định)

elect

election (cuộc bầu cử)
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1.4.2.1.2. One-word terms which appear in the form of noun
The terms which are nouns can be divided into two subgroups as the
following:
Subtechnical terms
Many legal terms are normal words that lose their “normal” sense and
acquire their special meanings in this subject. For example, the normal sense of
power is “energy that can be collected and used to operate a machine, to make

electricity, etc”

(năng lượng)

while

its

specialist meaning is “the right of

authority of a person or group to do something” (thẩm quyền).
Other examples:
interest

(lợi ích)

effect

(hiệu lực)

justice

(tư pháp)

restriction

(chế định)

Unless the users of subtechnical terms have made themselves accquainted
with the general meaning of the words which popularly exist in General English, it

is possible that they may be confused in the usages of these words as they take on
special meaning in a concrete scientific and technical field. These terms are only
clear to them when they have a thorough understanding about that subject.
Highly technical terms
Every subject has its set of highly technical terms, which is an intrinsic
part of the leaning of the discipline itself. To understand these terms the user
might need to comprehend their theory. These highly technical words can be
really problematic when the user has relatively little knowledge of his subject
discipline as well as of English.
Following are some of the frequently used highly technical terms such as:
arrest: bắt giữ

warrant: lệnh

offence: tội

jurisdiction: quyền xét xử

provision: điều khoản

conviction: kết án

fine: phạt

hearing: phiên toà

appeal: khiếu nại

amendment: sửa đổi
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1.4.2.1.3. Acronyms
Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of words that simplyfy
long and wordy proper names of countries, organizations, projects, institutions, etc.
Example:
PPA (People‟s Police Academy)
UNODC (United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime)
INCB (International Narcotics Control Board)
1.4.2.2. Above-word-level terms
There are terms which are composed of two or more than two words; these
words, which are of different parts of speech, combine together and create terms
that have the form of nominal group as proposed by Halliday (1985).
1.4.2.2.1. Nominal group
Before examining the legal terms in the form of nominal group, the
experiential will be discussed briefly.
According to Halliday (1985: 180), the nominal group structure comprises
Thing, commonly called head noun, preceded by various items including Deictic,
Numerative, Epithet, Classifier and followed by Qualifier. The following table will
exactly illustrate the structure.
Deictic

Numerative

Epithet

Epithet

Classifier

Thing

Those

two

splendid

old

electric

trains

Qualifier
with
pantographs

Deictic: The Deictic element indicates whether or not some specific subset of
the Thing is intended. It can be either specific such as this, that, these, those, my,
your, her, its, etc. or non-specific like a, an, each, all, every, etc.
Numerative: The Numerative element indicates some numerical features of
the subset: either quantity (one, two, three, etc.) or order (first, second, third, etc.),
either exact (one, two, three, etc.) or inexact (few, little, several, etc.).
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