The special meanings of such and (the) said

Such and the said usually refer back to some data that have been mentioned in the contract earlier:

„Contracting parties agree that the gross amount of …HUF of the lease fee shall be deposited by Lessee within 10 calendar days after the execution hereof, but not later than January 15, 2000 to a lawyer’s escrow of Dr. Nagy Pál individual lawyer (8800 Nagykanizsa, Fő u. 3.) under an escrow agreement to be concluded with him with the condition that the depositary lawyer shall place the amount of such deposit in the attached sub-account of his bank account and the deposit can be paid to Lessor only when Lessee takes possession of the leased premises from Lessor and a copy of the minutes taken about such possession taking and signed by both parties is handed over to the depositary lawyer. After the said possession taking, Lessor shall issue an invoice on the lease fee to Lessee and in such invoice the date of payment should be February 1, 2000.”

In the Hungarian translation of the source text there is no such „reference word”

therefore translators rather repeat the expression. Repetitions characterise both American and Hungarian contracts since one of the most important aims of legal draftsmen is to avoid ambiguity. As Crystal and Davy point out „ambiguities and confusions are intolerable in a legal document” (1969: 212). For this reason the complete lack of anaphoric reference is observable, the otherwise frequently used relative sentences, relative pronouns (who, which) and personal pronouns (it, him, her) are scarcely used in contracts. This is a safe procedure, but one that makes the text heavy and monotonous (Hiltunen 1990).

Besides the usage of said and such other phenomena are also observable in the above quotation. The omission of the (otherwise required) definite article the is typical in American and also in Hungarian contracts. Literate speakers of these languages would never use a proper name with the definite article preceding it. Since Lessor and Lessee stand for proper names, which have been identified previously in the contract, draftsmen do not use definite articles. A typical collocation can also be observed

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(hereof), and the earlier mentioned modal auxiliary shall also occurs. The following example provides further examples (omission of the definite article, shall, etc.).

„Parties agree that after the execution of this agreement Kiss & Partner shall take the necessary arrangements with MATÁV regarding the registration. The costs of such registration shall be borne by Kiss & Partner.”

’Felek rögzítik, hogy a jelen megállapodás aláírását követően a telefonvonalak átírásáról a Kiss & Társa Bt. köteles intézkedni a MATÁV Rt.-nél. Az átírással kapcsolatos költségek a Kiss & Társa Bt.-t terhelik’

8. Circumlocution

When reading contracts in any language one often has the feeling that the language is overcomplicated and for understanding the content, the contract must be read several times. We can observe a range of elements in the contract which may seem

„unimportant” for the first sight but actually they occur because of the circumlocution phenomenon. (Horváth 2007) When translating from Hungarian to English, unexperienced translators, not being aware of this phenomenon, do not use this device.

This results in a grammatically correct but „non-Americanlike” translations. So the first step for every translator must be to study corpora which include only American contracts, research the frequently used terms and other typical phenomena, and only after having observed all these should one start translating.

„In consideration of the 9.8% inflation in year 2000 in Hungary Lessor agrees to modify the minimum monthly charge specified in Section 9.d of the real estate lease agreement to be paid for the energy and water services of the leased building … and Lessee agrees to accept the above mentioned modifications.

’Tekintettel a 2000. évi 9,8%-os magyarországi inflációra, bérbeadó módosítja az ingatlanbérleti szerződés 9.d pontjában rögzített, az épületingatlan energia- és vízellátásáért fizetendő szolgáltatási díjak minimális havi összegét … bérlő elfogadja a fenti módosításokat’

References Bart I., Klaudy K. 2003. EU fordítóiskola, Budapest: Corvina.

Crystal, D., Davy, D. 1969. Investigating English Style, Longman.

Grilliot, H., Schubert, F. 1988. Introduction to Law & the Legal System, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.

Heffentrager O. 2005. Syntax in Legal Language, BA dissertation at Kodolányi János College.

Hiltunen, R. 1990. Chapters on Legal English, Helsinki: Tiedeakademia.

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Horváth J. 2007. The Typical Linguistic Features of Anglo-American Contracts and their Translations into Hungarian. In: Lendvai E. (ed.) Translatologia Pannonica, Pécs.

http://translator.btk.pte.hu

Heidinger, F., Hubalek, A., Bárdos P., Bárdos R. 2004. Angol-amerikai jogi nyelv. Bp.: hvgorac.

Klaudy K. 2003. Languages in Translation, Budapest: Scholastica.

Lordi, A. 2002. Towards a Common Methodology in Contract Law. The Journal of Law and Commerce, vol. 22, 1-15. http://jlc.law.pitt.edu/22_1.html

O’Driscoll, J. 2000. Britain, Oxford: OUP.

Ormai, J., Pókay, M. 2003. English for Law Students, Janus Pannonius University, Pécs.

Schwyter, J. R. 1996. Old English Legal Language, Odense University Press.

Tiersma, T. M. 1999. Legal Language, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Sources

Stewart, W., Burgess, R. 1996. Collins Dictionary of Law. HarperCollins Publishers.

Angol-Magyar Jogi, Kormányzati, Politikai Értelmező Szótár 2006. Budapest: PANEM.

Hornby, A. S. 2000. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, OUP.

Martin, E. 2002. A Dictionary of Law. Oxford: OUP.

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http://www.freelawanswer.com/law retrieved on November 19, 2007.

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www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/ucc.table.html retrieved on November 26, 2007.

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www.wikipedia.org/offer retrieved on November 26, 2007.

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