Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Syntactic Features of Islamic Legal Texts and Their Syntactic Implications for Translation

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Certain religious texts are deemed part of legal texts that are characterised by high sensitivity and sacredness. Amongst such religious texts are Islamic legal texts that are replete with Islamic legal terms that designate particular legal concepts peculiar to Islamic legal system and legal culture. However, from the syntactic perspective, Islamic legal texts prove lengthy and condensed, with an extensive use of coordinated, subordinate and relative clauses, which separate the main verb from the subject, and which, of course, carry a heavy load of legal detail. The present paper seeks to examine the syntactic features of Islamic legal texts and the syntactic translation implications involved through studying three Islamic legal Arabic excerpts and their English translations. The paper argues that amongst the syntactic features of Islamic legal texts are nominalisation, participles, modals and complex structures. It also claims that the syntactic translation implications are indeed syntactic features of legal English, which are sentence combining versus sentence break, nominalisation, wh-deletion, passivisation, modals and multiple negations. Moreover, nominalisation, modality and complex structures are features of both Islamic legal texts and legal English, albeit with varying degrees.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of Data and Materials

Not applicable.

References

  1. Alcaraz, Enrique, and Brian Hughes. 2002. Legal translation explained. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  2. alshāfiʿī, Muhammad. 1938. alrisālah [The Epistle], 1st ed. Cairo: Maṭbaʿatu Muṣṭafā Albābī Alḥalabī wa ʾawlādih.

    Google Scholar 

  3. almatroudi, Abdulhakim. 2007. The removal of blame from the great Imāms: An annotated translation of Ibn Taymiya’s Rafʿu almalāmi ʿan alʾaʾimmati alʾaʿlām [The removal of blame from the great Imāms]. Islamic Studies 46 (3): 317–380.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Altarabin, Mahmoud. 2021. The Routledge course on media, legal and technical translation. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Alwazna, Rafat. 2013. Translating Ḥanbalī Sharīʿa code from Arabic into English. Deutschland: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Alwazna, Rafat. 2016. Islamic Law: Its sources, interpretation and the translation of it into laws written in English. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 29 (2): 251–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Alwazna, Rafat. 2017. Culture and law: The cultural impact on Islamic legal statements and its implications for translation. International Journal of Legal Discourse 2 (2): 307–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Alwazna, Rafat. 2019. Translation and legal terminology: Techniques for coping with the untranslatability of legal terms between Arabic and English. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 32 (1): 75–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Austin, John L. 1962. How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Baker, Mona, and Sameh Hanna. 2009. Arabic tradition. In The Routledge Encyclopaedia of translation studies, 2nd ed., ed. Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 328–337. London, New York: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Baugh, Albert C., and Thomas Cable. 2002. A history of the English language, 5th ed. London: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Beaugrande, Robert, and wolfgang Dressler. 1981. Introduction to text linguistics. London, New York: Longman.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Beveridge, Barbara J. 2002. Legal English, how it developed and why it is not appropriate for international commercial contracts. In The development of legal language, ed. Heikki E.S. Mattila, Paper presented at International Symposium held at the University of Lapland, September 13–15, 2000, 55–79. Helsinki: Kauppakaari.

  14. Bhatia, Vijay K. 1993. Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Bhatia, Vijay K. 1994. Cognitive structuring in legislative provisions. In Language and Law, ed. John Gibbons, 136–155. London, New York: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Bhatia, Vijay K. 1997. Translating legal genres. In Text typology and translation, ed. Anna Trosborg, 203–216. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Bullon, Stephen, et al. (eds.). 2003. Longman dictionary of contemporary English, 4th ed. Edinburgh: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Caton, Charles E. 1963. Philosophy and ordinary language. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Crystal, David, and Derek Davy. 1969. Investigating English style. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Danet, Brenda. 1985. Legal discourse. In Handbook of discourse analysis, vol. I, ed. Teun A. Van Dijk, 273–291. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Dickins, James, Sandor Hervey, and Ian Higgins. 2002. Thinking Arabic translation: A course in translation method: Arabic to English. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  22. El-Farahaty, Hanem. 2015. Arabic-English-Arabic legal translation. Oxon: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  23. Gibbons, John. 2002. Forensic linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Goodrich, Peter. 1987. Legal discourse: Studies in linguistics, rhetoric and legal analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  25. Haigh, Rupert. 2004. Legal English. London: Cavendish Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Hart, Herbert L. A. 1994. The concept of law, 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Hiltunen, Risto. 1990. Chapters on legal English: Aspects past and present of the language of the law. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Holes, Clive. 2004. Modern Arabic: Structures, functions, and varieties. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Husni, Ronak, and Newman L. Daniel. 2015. Arabic-English-Arabic translation: Issues and strategies. London, New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  30. Ibn Rushd, Muhammad. 1982. Bidāyatu almujtahidi wa Nihāyatu almuqtaṣid [The distinguished jurist’s primer], Vol. II, 6 edn. Beirut: Dāru almaʿrifati Lilṭibāʿati wa alnashr.

  31. Ibn Taymiya, Ahmad. 1992. Rafʿu almalāmi ʿan alʾaʾimmati alʾaʿlām [The removal of blame from the great Imāms]. Riyadh: alriʾāsatu alʿamatu Liʾidārāti albuḥūthi alʿilmiyyati wa alʾiftāʾi wa aldaʿwati wa alʾirshād.

  32. Kittredge, Richard and John Lehrberger. 1982. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.

  33. Kurzon, Dennis. 1989. Language of the law and legal language. In Special language: From humans thinking to thinking machine, ed. Christer Lauren and Marianne Nordman, 283–290. Clevedon, Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Kurzon, Dennis. 1997. Legal language: Varieties, genres, registers, discourse. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 7 (2): 119–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Lee, David Y. 2001. Genres, registers, text types, domains and styles: Clarifying the concepts and navigating a path through the BNC jungle. Language Learning and Technology 5 (3): 37–72.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Lowry, Joseph E. 2015. The Epistle on legal theory: A translation of alshāfiʿī’s Risālah. New York, London: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Maley, Yon. 1994. The language of the law. In Language and the law, ed. John Gibbons, 11–50. London, New York: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Mattila, Heikki E.S. 2006. Comparative legal linguistics. Translated by Christopher Goddard, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

  39. Morrison, Mary J. 1989. Excursions into the nature of legal language. Cleveland State Law Review 37 (2): 271–336.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Nyazee, Imran 1996. The distinguished jurist’s primer, Vol. II, 1 edn. Reading: Garnet Publishing Limited.

  41. O’Barr, William M. 1982. Linguistic evidence: Language, power and strategy in the courtroom. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Rasmussen, Kirsten, and Jan Engberg. 1999. Genre analysis of legal discourse. HERMES – Journal of Language and Communication in Business 22: 113–132.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Sabra, Mahmoud M A. 2003. Translation of civil contracts. Cairo: Dāru Alkutubi Alqānūniyya.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Salmi-Tolonen, Tarja. 2004. Legal linguistic knowledge and creating and interpreting law in multilingual environments. Brooklyn Journal of International Law 29 (3): 1166–1191.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Schauer, Frederick. 1993. Law and language. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Suleiman, Yasir. 1999. Arabic grammar and linguistics. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Tiersma, Peter M. 1999. Legal language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Trosborg, Anna. 1995. Introduction: Special issue on laying down the law - discourse analysis of legal institutions. Journal of Pragmatics 23 (1): 1–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Trosborg, Anna. 1995. Statutes and contracts: An analysis of legal speech acts in the English language of law. Journal of Pragmatics 23 (1): 31–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Zidan, Ahmad. 2015. A linguistic analysis of some problems of Arabic-English translation of legal texts, with special reference to contracts. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of European Languages and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 14354, Jeddah, 21424, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Rafat Y. Alwazna

Authors
  1. Rafat Y. Alwazna
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rafat Y. Alwazna.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Alwazna, R.Y. The Syntactic Features of Islamic Legal Texts and Their Syntactic Implications for Translation. Int J Semiot Law 35, 1689–1710 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-022-09887-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-022-09887-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation