33(1) - 2021

Juristische, administrative und politische Fachübersetzungen während der Napoleonischen Epoche. Projektbeschreibung und erste Ergebnisse am Beispiel von Genua

Jelena Nikolic & Michael Schreiber

Titre
The translation of legal, administrative and political texts during the Napoleonic era. Description and first results of a research project focusing on Genoa

Résumé
After demonstrating the legitimacy of studying Belgian FThe language policy of the French Revolution is known today especially for the imposition of the national language and the oppression of the dialects and regional languages. However, from 1790 on, several decrees stipulated the translation of national laws and decrees into the regional languages in France. From the mid-1790s on, the translation policy was extended to other countries and regions under French influence, e.g., in Northern Italy where several ‘sister republics’, and later the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, were founded. The present paper is based on a research project (funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) on the translation of legal, administrative and political texts from French into Italian during the Napoleonic era in Northern Italy. These translations have not yet been studied thoroughly from the perspective of linguistics and translation studies. There is a total lack of studies focusing on the interdependence of language, translation and law. This projects intends to fill a part of this gap. The present paper focuses on Genoa, the paper by Sarah Del Grosso on Milan. The examples that will be analyzed deal with the text structure of legal texts, especially the so called ‘phrase unique’ structure, formed by one long sentence, and lexical or semantic interferences in translations from French into Italian. Most of the translations are very “literal” on the macrolinguistic level, with some modifications on the microstructural level.

Mots-clés
Translation policy, French Revolution, Italy, legal language, legal translation

DOI 10.17462/para.2021.01.06

25 avril 2021
  33(1) - 2021