Le non dit en salle d’audience : défis et stratégies de traduction de l’implicite dans les plaidoiries
The Unsaid in the Courtroom: Challenges and Strategies for Translating the Implicit in Pleadings

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the difficulties encountered when translating the implicit in pleadings from French into Romanian. Legal discourse, particularly pleadings, is full of unspoken words, allusions and implicature, which form an essential part of the lawyer's rhetorical strategy. Implicit language is based on pragmatic mechanisms that are not always easy to render into another language, especially given the linguistic and cultural differences between the French and Romanian legal systems. The major challenges for translators lie in the very nature of the implicit, which is often intentional and aimed at subtly inducing a specific interpretation without stating it explicitly. This raises the question of how to convey these undertones without making them overly explicit, at the risk of losing the subtlety of the original discourse. In addition, linguistic differences, such as syntactic structures and ways of expressing ambiguity, complicate the task of translators, requiring a balance between adapting the discourse and preserving the author’s intent. To overcome these difficulties, several translation strategies are explored. Explanatory reformulation involves making the implicit explicit, while the use of pragmatic equivalents seeks to recreate a similar effect in the target language. Compensation, on the other hand, shifts the pragmatic effects to other places in the discourse when the implicit is untranslatable. In conclusion, the article emphasises that translating the implicit in pleadings is a complex exercise, requiring a mastery of linguistic and cultural subtleties. Translators must employ appropriate strategies to maintain the balance between fidelity to the original text and pragmatic adaptation for the target audience.

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