4.5. Texts of official and business discourse: specific lexical and grammatical features relevant for translation

The discourse (the language) of official documents has the following subtypes:

1. The language of legal documents: texts of the documents of the national law (constitutions, laws, statutes, decrees, orders, rules and regulations) and international law (treaties, agreements, pacts, charters, declarations, exchanges of notes, etc.);

2. The language of business documents (contracts, letters, memos, etc.);

3. The language of military documents (military statutes, rules, regulations and orders, excluding technical manuals and documentation which belong to the scientific and technical discourse).

The aim of communication within this discourse is to bind the addressee (the reader) to a certain kind of behaviour. Therefore, according to our terminology, these texts are artefacts with high degree of authority and binding force. They are intended to change behaviour of people and, therefore, to change the reality. The label of performatives (i.e. texts that “work” in the real world or rather “change reality”) may also be applied to these texts [see: Аспекты 1982; Максимов 1984; Остин 1986; Austin 1962; 1979; Maksimov 1992].

Communication by means of official documents may occur:

• between two or more states or governments (international treaties, agreements, charters, conventions, pacts, declarations, exchanges of notes, etc.);

• between the state and its citizens (constitutions, statutes, laws, decrees, acts, resolutions, orders, rules and regulations, etc.);

• between two or more legal or physical entities such as companies, agencies, institutions, or individuals (business contracts, letters, memos);

• between a person who has authority and subordinates (orders, regulations, instructions, directives, etc.).

Official documents, being binding texts, have a high degree of authority and responsibility encoded in them. This is achieved by direct reference to the authors of the document and its addressee, to the time and place of compiling the document, by the use of “binding” words (performative verbs and nouns) such as advise, agree, undertake, guarantee, shall, will, bind, promise, ask, reiterate, recognize, respect, request, recommend; agreement, resolution, decision, order, etc. The binding nature of official documents is also ensured by the extensive use of modal verbs, such as should, would, may, need, must, have to, be to, etc. The binding nature of international legal documents, for example, is so high that their translations are not viewed as official versions of these texts and require the legal procedure of authentication, when the parties to an agreement mutually agree to consider texts in different languages to be originals. This is explained by the fact that in the process of translation the text is transformed through the “ego” of a translator and thus loses its binding force. Therefore a special clause reading that parties consider both texts (e.g. in English and in Ukrainian) to be “equally authoritative” (or “authentic”) is introduced in the closing remarks to each international legal instrument (treaty, agreement, convention, etc.) while “translations” (into the third language, e.g. into French) are regarded as unofficial and may be used only for reference [Евинтов 1981]. Preambles to international legal documents play a very important role as they usually contain the “performative” formula “have agreed” or “agree as follows”, which makes the rest of the text binding for the parties to perform what they have agreed upon.

Texts of official documents are also characterised by:

• conventionality of expression : specific composition: division into structural parts (preamble, central clauses, opening addresses, closing sentences, signatures, seals, indications of dates, names of addressees, etc.);

• set expressions and highly literary formal words, e.g., I beg to inform you; on behalf of; Dear Sir; The High Contracting Parties hereby agree as follows; hereby; hereto; herein; hereinafter; above-mentioned; the undersigned, etc.;

• terms which have to do with the subject field of the document and which must be unambiguous, e.g., tax exemption; immovable property; designated airline; air services; stop for non-traffic purposes; territorial waters, etc.;

• the encoded character of language: the use of symbols, abbreviations and acronyms, e.g., MP (Member of Parliament); IMF (International Monetary Fund); UN (United Nations); VAT (value-added tax); PLC (public limited company); Gvt (government); USS (United States ship); $ (dollar); atk (attack); A/T (anti-tank), etc.;

• absence of any emotions, tropes and figures of speech (stylistic devices and expressive means);

• complicated syntax: combining several pronouncements into one sentence which usually begins with a new paragraph; the use of the participial and infinitive constructions, long compound and complex sentences;

• reference to the present or future which is expressed by the preference to use the Present Indefinite, the Present Perfect and the Future Indefinite tenses.