Legal Language – a Cultural Ambassador. A Language for Various Purposes, not only a Language for Specific Purposes

    Research output: Contribution to conference without publisher/journalConference abstract for conferenceResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    KONFERENCE SINGAPORE
    Culture-related competence

    Courses in comparative Spanish -Danish legal language: A cultural Kinder egg?
    Learning comparative legal language is not only a question of linguistic competence, but it is also cultural training in which the students achieve culture-related competences as culture is implicitly embedded in many legal terms in the shape of historical, societal and legal knowledge from two different worlds. Students need to understand these legal terms, fixed expressions, metaphors, collocations, etc. in order to be able to translate from one legal language/culture to another. It means also overcoming the typical blindness to one’s own culture. The Spanish-Danish Legal Language course introduces Danish language students to a new world of cultural knowledge, as they generally have insignificant knowledge of Danish law and the Danish legal system. Furthermore, they have no knowledge of Spanish law and the Spanish legal system. In this paper I will discuss some of the problems/possibilities the students meet when trying to ‘translate’ from one legal language/culture to another also in the case of culture-bound terms with little or no equivalence. The examples are taken from my classes of Spanish Legal Communication at Aalborg University, Denmark. )
    Original languageEnglish
    Publication date30 Jul 2014
    Publication statusPublished - 30 Jul 2014
    EventICT for Language Learning - Grand Hotel Mediterraneo, Firenze, Firenze, Italy
    Duration: 13 Nov 201414 Nov 2014
    Conference number: 7

    Conference

    ConferenceICT for Language Learning
    Number7
    LocationGrand Hotel Mediterraneo, Firenze
    Country/TerritoryItaly
    CityFirenze
    Period13/11/201414/11/2014

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Legal Language – a Cultural Ambassador. A Language for Various Purposes, not only a Language for Specific Purposes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this