INTERTEXT 1-2, 2016 ______CZU: 81’25:340.6

THE CONCEPTS OF LEGAL VS AND THEIR INTERPRETATIVE TRANSLATION

Aliona MELENTIEVA Dragoș VICOL Free International University of Moldova (ULIM)

The translational process always was influenced by a series of factors that could worsen the quality of the text rendered from one language into another. It implies an interchange act of cultures, habits and values, finding of a common meaning, sense and appropriate usage (equivalent). In the translational process it is vital to make a comparative and evaluative of the involved languages as well as the common points of the context within two more or less different societies. In this perspective, the given article focuses on the analysis of the difference between two concepts which pretend to be synonyms – legal and forensic. In the Romanian language there is only one “equivalent” for both concepts which could take different forms as juridic, judiciar. We consider that forensic psychology and are different domains, and it is important to underline the conceptual difference between them in order to avoid confuse situations in future when operating with these terms. In this context we considered the interpretative theory of translation in order to understand better the cases of usage of the terms “legal”, “forensic”, “legal psychology” and “forensic psychology”. Keywords: interpretative translation, cognitive knowledge, legal psychology, forensic psychology.

It is a well-known fact that the translational process is very which always requires a peculiar approach taking into consideration many different aspects such as context, type of text, cultural background, terminological field, etc. of the target language. It is also important to analyze/investigate the “(co) relation” of the source language and target language according to the mentioned aspects, their tangential points in order to make an accurate translation. Generally, some specialists consider that the term translation could be perceived differently: translation as an “abstract concept” (translation is a process and product at the same time); translation as a “product” (the translated text); translation as a process (the translator’s activity); and translation as “interpretation” (text analysis through the linguistic, psycholinguistic, semantic, pragmatic, cultural and communicational perspectives) (Han 143). Although translation is considered mainly a linguistic activity, many authors state that it is referred also to semiotics – science which studies the systems of signs and functions and involves the meaning transfer from one language into another requiring strong knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and a variety of extra-linguistic criteria. In this sense Roman Jakobson distinguishes the following types of translation:  intralingual translation or rewording;  interlingual translation or translation proper;  intersemiotic translation or transmutation. 248______

TRADUCEREA CA DIALOG INTERCULTURAL ______He emphasizes the issue that there is no absolute equivalence in the translational process (http://www.uniroma2.it/didattica/ling_ing1_linfo/deposito/ Basnett_slides.doc). The major factor of the given problem is the differences that come from the uniqueness of every society with its own reality, language, culture, administrative and social systems, etc. Thus we can say that the translator is a mediator between two situations of intercultural communication (Han 145). In other words the translator should render the meaning of the source text, to maintain the initial objective of the original expression and informative context (at the qualitative and quantitative levels) and to harmonize the extra-linguistic and socio- cultural contexts of the source and target recipients (http://www.litere.uvt.ro/litere- old/vechi/documente_pdf/aticole/uniterm/uniterm1_2004/glungu.pdf). Consequently the translator’s final purpose in the translational process is not the equivalence of utterances in both languages but their meaning in both contexts. This point of view was largely developed by the specialists of the Academy of Translation and Interpretation of Paris, also called Paris School which issued the interpretative approach or “theory of sense” beginning with D. Seleskovitch, M. Lederer, F. Herbulo, etc. They state that the translation in its deep sense is an interpretation which implies the interpretation of the source text by language symbols and cognitive knowledge of the translator (Kang 236). And we consider namely that the cognitive knowledge plays an important role dealing with some confusing peculiarities in the translational process where two languages are involved, because “language” represents the sound wave of the society with all its components, it is a kind of “physical form” of this society which could get any place on the Earth. Thus the translator’s mission is to create steady bridges between different societies from different parts of the world. That is why the translators should have all “instruments” to build these bridges. In this context we would like to prove that the translator should be very attentive in his/her activity of translating, connecting and matching two languages taking into consideration the above mentioned aspects. The concepts of legal psychology and forensic psychology sometimes create ambiguous situations when they are used by a non-native speaker of English. As for example they are both suitable for the Romanian “psihologie juridică” or the Russian term “юридическая психология”. Analyzing simultaneously the given terminology in English, Romanian and Russian we concluded it would be useful to delimit the differences (if they are) between the concepts of legal psychology and forensic psychology in order to avoid mistakes in their further usage. One of the most popular explanatory dictionaries “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” gives the following definitions for “legal” and “forensic”: Legal: adjective 1. [attributive] Relating to the , connected to the law: the European legal system; 1.1 Appointed or required by the law: a legal requirement; 1.2 Law recognized by common or statute law, as distinct from equity. 2. Permitted by law: he claimed that it had all been legal (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/legal; Wehmeier 734). Forensic: adjective 1. Relating to or denoting the application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of crime: forensic evidence, forensic medicine, ; 2. Connected with or used in a court of law. Ex.: forensic psychiatrist – one who examines people who have been accused of a crime.

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INTERTEXT 1-2, 2016 ______noun 1. Scientific tests or techniques used in connection with the detection of crime (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/forensic; Wehmeier 503).The translation into Romanian of legal is “legal, legitim, oficial, juridic” (Bantaș 223); the meaning of forensic in Romanian according to dictionaries is “juridic, de tribunal, judiciar” (Bantaș 154). In Russian: legal – юридический, законный, дозволеный законом, легальный (Müller 481); forensic – судебный (Müller 345). As we have noticed the dictionary meaning of the studied terms in these languages are similar, but their usage is not always the same as it is mentioned above, there are many peculiarities proper to the certain society as court structure, judicial system, law system. That is why we have for forensic medicine – “medicină legală” and “судебная медицина”, for forensic and legal psychology – “psihologie juridică” and “юридическая психология”. Thus in Romanian and Russian there is only just one term for forensic and legal psychology. Legal and Forensic psychologies are relatively new branches of psychology with the law implication which are developing the last 20-30 years. Till now many people are considering them absolute synonyms, but if we look in the depth of their definitions, main features and areas of investigation, we could perceive some important differences. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines forensic psychology as “the application of clinical specialties (investigation, research studies, experimentations, techniques, methods of assessment, treatment, evaluation, etc.) to the legal arena, institutions and people who come into contact with the law” (http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psn/2013/09/forensic- psychology.aspx). The APA’s specialists emphasize “the most frequent duty” of the forensic as being the psychological assessment of individuals who are involved with the legal system (ibidem). A narrow definition of the given term largely used within the related fields is that “forensic psychology deals with the psychological aspects of legal processes including applying theory to criminal investigations, understanding psychological problems associated with criminal behavior, and the treatment of criminals (http://www.bps.org.uk/psychology- public/psychological-terms/psychological-terms). Generally speaking a forensic represents an expert in a specific field of study, namely psychology / psychiatry and he /she could be appointed by the court or legal agents to assess the state of mind of the defendant at the time of the offense, i.e. to evaluate the defendant’s sanity or insanity at the time of committing the crime. Moreover the forensic psychologists may be called to provide recommendations for sentencing, treatment or information regarding the mitigating factors, different types of assessment as witness credibility or future risk (http://uncw.edu/psy/research/research-forensiclegal.html). So, the main functions / duties of the forensic psychologists are:  Consultant to law enforcement: working with law enforcement institutions being responsible for assisting their staff that sometimes in certain specific situations need specialized help in crisis cases as for example post- traumatic stress or suicide;  Correctional psychologist: very often forensic psychologist provides correctional settings/services for inmates and offenders; the main duties

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TRADUCEREA CA DIALOG INTERCULTURAL ______include the evaluation of the detainees and providing treatment to these people;  Evaluator: one of the main roles of the forensic psychologist is that of evaluating parties in criminal or civil cases on issues related to their case. As for example they evaluate the defendants’ to stand trial, their mental state at the time of the offense (insanity), and their risk for future violent acts;  Treatment provider: this type represents the specialists who provide psychological intervention and treatment to individuals in both criminal and civil cases who require or request these services. As usual the issues that should be treated or investigated are restoration of competency, mental illness, violent behavior, psychological injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.;  Malingering: sometimes the forensic psychologists are called to assist, examine and evaluate the defendant or witness behavior in order to identify and assess the presence of malingering and deception.

The legal psychology presupposes the empirical of the law, legal institutions and people who came into contact with the law. Legal psychology is mainly focused on the social and cognitive principles which are applied to issues in the legal area such as eyewitness memory, jury decision- making, investigations, and interviewing. Many specialists of the “young” field state that the research which integrates psychological principles with legal context should be considered legal psychology (except the research which involves clinical assessment “typically” for the forensic psychology). In this context we can mention the main roles of the legal psychologist:  Expert witnesses: in criminal cases, an expert witness may be called to testify about eyewitness memory, mistaken identity, competence to stand trial, etc.;  Policy making and legislative guidance: evaluation of new legal practices from the psychological point of view;  Advisory roles: legal psychologists may advise legal decision makers, particularly judges on psychological findings related to issues in a certain criminal case;  Amicus briefs: according to the APA amicus brief represents an opinion based on scientific references and statistics on such issues as mental illness, retardation and other factors;  Trial consulting: legal psychologists involved in trial consulting provide different types of services as helping to organize testimony, preparing witness to testify, picking juries, etc.

Taking in consideration the mentioned definitions and features of the researched terms, we can resume that forensic psychology is the study of criminal court issues including mental state of defendants, the probability they will re- offend and the legal psychology is the study which occurs within the legal system as examination of jury selection, , etc. Thus, joining the majority of specialists’ opinions of the given field we consider that the main difference between legal psychology and forensic psychology is that legal

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INTERTEXT 1-2, 2016 ______psychology is the study of the thought processes, and behaviors of jurors, the court system, legal processes, while forensic psychology mostly focuses on criminal cases (suspects, defendants, and convicted criminal) and the psychological issues involved in them (http://www.psychologyschoolguide.net/guides/). Both of them are related to law system but the direction of investigation and evaluation is slightly different: forensic psychologists typically work directly with suspects and defendants/criminals in the penal system – they meet with clients in police stations, jails and prisons; legal psychologists work with lawyers and police officers conducting research studies in order to show patterns within the legal process and court system, they examine legal, court, and jury issues, in an effort to improve the system – they are not concerned with criminals/defendants (http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Legal%20Psychology#ixz z40M9DYqXr). According to the roles of the forensic and legal psychologist the main functions of legal psychologists the examination of how jurors are chosen, how juries make decisions, and the credibility of eyewitness testimonies. They also interview potential jurors to get a better understanding of their mental states and thought processes. Their usual workplaces are courthouses, law offices, police precincts, private practices, and colleges/universities. The main functions of a forensic psychologist are: evaluating criminals / defendants in order to determine if they are legally sane or criminally insane, and predicting the risk level for repeating the same or similar crimes. Very often forensic psychologists are called to provide mental stability evaluations, testimonies, and assessments during trials (http://www.psychologyschoolguide.net/guides/). In conclusion we would like to mention that in the Republic of Moldova the legal psychology has the statute of a discipline taught to the students of Law Faculties, and that’s all. While the forensic psychology recently began to develop separating slowly from the psychiatry / psychiatric expertize. Taking into account these aspects, we consider that the ambiguity was created by the different levels of development of these two societies (English and Romanian), different systems of the given domain (psychology, court, etc.). But we underline that the applicative features of forensic and legal psychology are the same. Thus, by defining and studying the peculiarities of usage of these notions we easily will render the right meaning in the process of translating the Romanian juridic into English, taking into consideration surely the context.

Bibliographical References

Bantaș, Andrei. Dicționar englez-român. București: Teora, 1994. Han, Bianca-Oana. “Metamorfozarea textului prin traducere”. Annales universitatit apulensis. Series Philologica, nr. 1, Alba Iulia: Universitatea “1 Decembrie 1918”, 2008. Kang, Qiang. “Application of the Interpretive Theory of Translation in Interpreting Practice”. Canadian Social Science, vol. 9, nr. 6, 2013, p. 236-241. Müller, V. K. English-Russian Dictionary. Moscow: ONYX, 2006. Wehmeier Sally (ed.). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Sixth edition, Oxford/New-York: Oxford University Press, 2000. http://uncw.edu/psy/research/research-forensiclegal.html http://www.bps.org.uk/psychology-public/psychological-terms/psychological-terms 252______