언어 형태와 번역의 기능성: 법률 서식 한영번역의 예

Every text has a set of conventional and culturally determined features that marks it as a text performing a certain communicative function. This set of standardized features, or genre conventions reflects the communication practices established through repetitive use of certain language forms with certain communicative functions. When a written form of communication takes place, the receiver expects the text to display a certain set of lexical, formal, and structural features, and the sender produces a text in such a way that it can meet those addressees' expectations. Therefore, these conventional features serve both as a constraint and as a guide in every communication process. This aspect of communication is a good reason why a translator needs to be very sensitive to the differences in the way communication is made successful in the source and the target cultures. Based on this observation, this article looks at the problems found in Korean-into-English translations of legal forms largely from a functional perspective. In so doing, a sample of original texts currently used in Korea and the United States are taken into account with a focus being laid on the dynamic relationship between language forms and their communicative functions.