Morpho-Syntactic Differences in Legal Texts with Reference to English-Arabic Translation

Abstract

At the core of this Study, there are some of the morphosyntactic problems faced by translators in rendering legal texts from English into Arabic. Therefore, the main concern of the present investigation emerged by the process of the analysis. The methodology of this research refers to the analysis of an authentic legal booklet: Statues and Rules of procedure of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies in Geneva 1986, with its parallel Arabic version:

The findings of the analysis point to some problems stemming from the morphosyntactic differences between the source language (SL) and the target language (TL). Besides, it highlights the paramount role of care, training, as well as experience at the translators built on their prior knowledge of SL and L, grammatical constructions, legal systems, styles, vocabularies as well as word equivalents in the solution of those problems to read an production of adequate legal translation.