“Iedere Nederlander wordt geacht de wet te kennen” is hoe Douwe Brongers De wet in gewoon Nederlands begint (Brongers, 2013, achterplat). Maar wat betekent deze uitspraak precies? Behoort iedereen...Show more“Iedere Nederlander wordt geacht de wet te kennen” is hoe Douwe Brongers De wet in gewoon Nederlands begint (Brongers, 2013, achterplat). Maar wat betekent deze uitspraak precies? Behoort iedereen elk willekeurig wetsartikel te kennen? In Nederland kennen we bijna 140.000 wetsartikelen, dus wat dat betreft lijkt de uitspraak al niet realistisch. Daarnaast is de wet in een taal geschreven die voor veel mensen moeilijk te begrijpen is. Als alle wetsartikelen in begrijpelijke taal zouden worden herschreven, zou deze uitspraak dan realistischer zijn? In deze scriptie wordt aan de hand van kwalitatief en kwantitatief onderzoek gekeken of wetsartikelen in toegankelijkere taal beter meer begrip opleveren bij de lezer.Show less
This thesis describes which translation procedures invented by Vinay and Darbelnet have been used while translating the US English legal terminology into the Dutch subtitles of the legal drama...Show moreThis thesis describes which translation procedures invented by Vinay and Darbelnet have been used while translating the US English legal terminology into the Dutch subtitles of the legal drama series Suits.Show less
In order to ensure that healthcare professionals from abroad understand the Dutch health legislation, translations of this legislation are required. This thesis contributes to this purpose by...Show moreIn order to ensure that healthcare professionals from abroad understand the Dutch health legislation, translations of this legislation are required. This thesis contributes to this purpose by translating frequently occurring medical and legal terms in the BIG law. These terms will be collected in a terminology. Healthcare professionals can consult this terminology before applying to the BIG register, to make sure that they understand the contents of the BIG law.Show less
This thesis provides a terminology for mutual legal assistance using a selection of terms from the WOTS (Wet Overdracht Tenuitvoerlegging Strafvonnissen). Each Dutch term is accompanied by an...Show moreThis thesis provides a terminology for mutual legal assistance using a selection of terms from the WOTS (Wet Overdracht Tenuitvoerlegging Strafvonnissen). Each Dutch term is accompanied by an English term, definitions of both the Dutch and the English term, a reliability number and often by additional information. The terms are extracted from treaties, national law and the work of legal scholars. The terminology differentiates between US and UK terms when necessary. The approach of the terminology is founded on the theoretical framework, which discusses legal terminology by means of legal translation, terminology and equivalence.Show less
This MA thesis focuses on the ambiguous nature of core modal verbs in legal English and Dutch. The research in this thesis is based on a corpus analysis of English and Dutch contracts. For the...Show moreThis MA thesis focuses on the ambiguous nature of core modal verbs in legal English and Dutch. The research in this thesis is based on a corpus analysis of English and Dutch contracts. For the modal ambiguity found in the contracts a solution is proposed using deontic nouns. The thesis finally provides a number of propositions on how to avoid modal ambiguity in legal language.Show less
The aim of this research is to gain insight in how futurity is expressed within English and Dutch legal contracts and to define the relation between modality and temporality. It is hypothesized...Show moreThe aim of this research is to gain insight in how futurity is expressed within English and Dutch legal contracts and to define the relation between modality and temporality. It is hypothesized that futurity is not unequivocally expressed in contract language. Also, it is expected that not only within futurity but also within modality a potential degree of ambiguity can be found considering expression of epistemic, dynamic, and deontic modality.Show less
Though the relevance of literature for law has been acknowledged for a long time, this does not apply to literary language: lawyers often view the legal and the literary language as worlds apart....Show moreThough the relevance of literature for law has been acknowledged for a long time, this does not apply to literary language: lawyers often view the legal and the literary language as worlds apart. Yet, I want to argue that legal texts are indeed more “literary” than is often thought. This thesis investigates if English Supreme Court judgments are more “literary” than Dutch ones, and whether this applies more to older judgments than to more recent ones. Legal language, literary language and “literariness” are discussed. I selected ten Dutch and nine English Supreme Court judgments, each dealing with an aspect of tort law and dating from the last fifty years, to make up a corpus for analysis. The analysis focuses on stylistic and rhetorical features and makes use of the criteria for the establishment of a “cline of literariness” as proposed by Carter and Nash, with short excursions to their theory on the language of fiction and to speech act theory. The results are discussed and, if possible, scored in tables. I found that not only are English Supreme Court judgments indeed more “literary” than their Dutch counterparts, there is also a clear difference between the judgments from the twentieth century and the more recent ones, with opposite results. On the one hand, the Dutch judgments tend to become more factual and less literary. On the other hand, the more recent English judgments seem to be gaining in literary qualities.Show less
Brown and Levinson’s (1987) typology of politeness strategies is based on the basic wants of a model person (MP). Their concepts of face and positive and negative politeness have been...Show moreBrown and Levinson’s (1987) typology of politeness strategies is based on the basic wants of a model person (MP). Their concepts of face and positive and negative politeness have been groundbreaking in the fields of pragmatics and intercultural communication. However, their claim of having developed a universal model has been refuted by many scholars (Bargiela-Chiappini 2003; Watts 2003; Hill et al. 1986; Matsumoto 1988; Nwoye 1992; Mao 1994). In this paper, I use a contrastive language guide by Baxter and Baxter (2011) to attempt to analyze [1] how their pragmalinguistic advice relates to Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness; [2] what influence the sociological variables have had on Baxter and Baxter’s choice of politeness strategies that are incorporated with face-threatening acts (FTAs); and [3] what the key underlying cultural differences are between the Dutch and the British in their choice of politeness strategies. The results of this study indicate that the pragmalinguistic advice relates to Brown and Levinson’s theory by using positive and negative politeness strategies when an FTA is incorporated into an utterance. Furthermore, sociological variables do play a significant role in the selection of politeness strategies, as they adhere to the discernment principles of their respective cultures. The key difference between the Dutch and the British is found in the sociological variable Low context communication.Show less
This thesis studies the current differences in lexical choice in male and female speech in Dutch in order to find out which Dutch language features are indicative of the gender of a speaker and...Show moreThis thesis studies the current differences in lexical choice in male and female speech in Dutch in order to find out which Dutch language features are indicative of the gender of a speaker and which Dutch language features laypersons associate with a certain gender. While the field of language variation due to gender has increased in popularity, there is still little research available about the differences between male and female speech in languages other than English. This thesis was written in order to add to this currently underrepresented subject within the field of language variation due to gender. Furthermore, this thesis also focuses on the subject of lexicality, which is a subject that is often overlooked in favour of other parts of language variation, such as the variation in the use of certain language acts, the variation in voice and the frequency of interruptions. Social indexicality and previous studies about the differences between male and female speech are discussed in this thesis, before the methodology is explained. The data used in this thesis consist of fifty transcribed conversations from Dutch television programmes such as Van de Kaart, and these data were scrutinized for the presence of various gendered language features, such as the use of negation or locatives. Furthermore, twenty-five participants were asked to read three transcriptions and to indicate what they thought the gender of the speaker was. While the data showed that all analysed language features are used by both men and women, there is often a difference in the frequency of use, which means the feature is either feminine or masculine. For example, the use of negation is more frequent in female speech, while men use more quantities. Laypersons, on the other hand, determined the gender of speakers both through contextual clues and the lexical choices made by the speakers.Show less
This MA thesis consists of an annotated translation of the short story “How I Found America,” written by the Jewish American author Anzia Yezierska (1881?–1970). The story was published in her...Show moreThis MA thesis consists of an annotated translation of the short story “How I Found America,” written by the Jewish American author Anzia Yezierska (1881?–1970). The story was published in her first collection of short stories, Hungry Hearts (1920). Yezierska’s work, which is not well known and has never been translated into Dutch, offers an inside into the lives of Jewish immigrants at the start of twentieth century. Within the framework of a three-act structure, "How I Found America" tells the story of a young Russian-Jewish woman who immigrates with her family to America, the Golden Land. She quickly becomes disillusioned by her surroundings. Depressed, she goes in search for the true nature of America. After long years of hard struggle, the narrator finally finds her answer that she is the one who creates America: “We go forth all to seek America. And in the seeking we create her. In the quality of our search shall be the nature of the America that we create” (Frank qtd. in Yezierska, 1920). The translation of Yezierska’s short story is accompanied by a discussion of the work of the French translator, theorist and philosopher, Antoine Berman (1992-1991) and features an analysis of his translation model in the form of a retrospective review of the translation of Yezierska’s text.Show less
Subtitling humour while preserving the humour effect is a major challenge because of the linguistic and cultural differences involved in translating humour between TL and SL, added to which are the...Show moreSubtitling humour while preserving the humour effect is a major challenge because of the linguistic and cultural differences involved in translating humour between TL and SL, added to which are the spatial and temporal restrictions imposed upon subtitles. This thesis examines a number of occurrences of wordplay taken from the popular Blackadder series and compares the humour effect between the original dialogues and the corresponding Dutch subtitles.Show less
Traditionally, grammar is important in translation. However, translation quality assessment often does not pay much attention to the correct use of grammar and information structure. This research...Show moreTraditionally, grammar is important in translation. However, translation quality assessment often does not pay much attention to the correct use of grammar and information structure. This research aims to investigate whether Hannay and Mackenzie’s five principles for effective writing in English can be used to provide a guideline for the assessment of grammatical constructions. The study contained a literature review and a questionnaire, which focused on quality assessment of Dutch to English translations in which the five principles are applied. Although the number of respondents is slightly small, there are interesting findings. Especially principle 1 and principle 5 are recognized and those translations are assessed as grammatically correct. The study also found that native speakers of English are more strict in their assessment than non-native speakers of English, who are more tolerant towards minor errors.Show less
This thesis compares two English translations of the Dutch Civil Code. The translations being compared are (1) the translation by Haanappel, which employed a foreignizing, source-oriented approach,...Show moreThis thesis compares two English translations of the Dutch Civil Code. The translations being compared are (1) the translation by Haanappel, which employed a foreignizing, source-oriented approach, and (2) the translation by Warendorf et al., which employed a more target-oriented approach. In addition to comparing differences in the translation of legal terminology, this thesis applies Antoine Berman's system of deforming tendencies to both translations in order to see to what extent they are present in either translation and, if so, to what extent they are relevant to legal translation.Show less
I outlined two varieties of Italian-American Englishes used in the eastern part of the US. One is the Super Mario English, which belongs to speakers who have just arrived in the US. The second one...Show moreI outlined two varieties of Italian-American Englishes used in the eastern part of the US. One is the Super Mario English, which belongs to speakers who have just arrived in the US. The second one is the Wiseguy English, which belongs to speakers who have lived in the US for a longer period of time and belong to the Italian-American culture. Three films were selected from a plethora of other films concerning the Italian-American culture. The purpose of this study was to determine whether these varieties of English exists from a linguistically stereotypical basis or whether these varieties are true-to-life representations of the features of the Italian-American English speaking culture. One monologue of every main character in the 3 films has been phonetically analysed. The phonetic analyses were then compared to the theoretical framework analysis of the aforementioned varieties of Italian-American Englishes. The hypothesis is that these three films perpetuate linguistic features in Italian-American Englishes that border among the stereotypical imagery of the Italian-American culture. The results outline the most salient features of Italian-American linguistic stereotypes.Show less
