Academic Scientific JournalsBinomial expressions in translated law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26881/bp.2025.4.03Keywords:
legal English, legal translation, translated English, binomial expressions, corpus-assisted translation studiesAbstract
This article examines selected binomial expressions in English translations of Polish law, comparing them with binomials found in nontranslated legislative texts. Drawing on four self-compiled corpora representing translated Polish statutes, as well as British, American and EU legislation, the study investigates the frequency and formulaicity of binomials across different varieties of legislative English. The analysis shows that usage patterns differ between translated and nontranslated legislation, with de facto translated legislation often resembling the former. The discrepancies are binomial category-dependent, but overall, binomial expressions are more formulaic in non-translated legal English, especially British, even though their frequency may be lower. Translated and de facto translated legislation may contain more binomials – except prepositional ones – but they are less recurrent and often calqued from the source language. These findings suggest that translational legal English does not fully align with the phraseological conventions typical of common law drafting.
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