On the concept of term equivalence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.15.1.1Keywords:
harmonization of legislation, supranational law, EU directives, legal terminology, translation equivalence, translation strategies, multilingual communicationAbstract
The article considers some terminological aspects in the process of harmonization of legislation reflecting on different approaches to the study of terms and especially to synonymy and term equivalence. The various mechanisms available to the translator are examined within the EU context and against the background of Bulgaria’s legal culture. The analysis is based on translations of EU legislation from English into Bulgarian and highlights felicitous choices and techniques employed, as well as recurring inconsistencies in the long and arduous process of approximation of legislation.
References
Jacobs, R. (1995). English Syntax: a Grammar for English Language Professionals. Oxford University Press.
de Groot, G-R. (2000). Translating Legal Information. In G. Zaccaria (Ed.), Journal of Legal Hermeneutics. Translation in Law, 5 (pp. 131-149). Lit Verlag MünsterHamburg-London.
Delors, J. (1992, April 11). Survival of the fattest. The Economist, p.32.
Fillmore, C. (1968). The Case for Case. In E. Bach & R.T. Harms (Eds.), Universals in Linguistic Theory (pp. 1-88). New York: Holt.
Forrest, A. (1998). The Challenges of Languages in Europe. Terminologie et traduction 3, 101-121.
Robertson, C. (2001). Multilingual Law: A Framework for Understanding LSP within the EU. In F. Mayer (Ed.), Language for Special Purposes: Perspectives for the New Millennium, 2 (pp.697-703), Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Trosborg, A. (1997). Translating Hybrid Political Texts. In: A. Trosborg (Ed.), Text Typology and Translation (pp. 145-158). John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.26.12tro
Å arÄević, S. (1997). New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Yankova, D., & Vassileva, I. (2002). Supranational Legislative Texts: a New Challenge for Translators in Europe. In H. P. Kelz (Ed.), Die sprachliche Zukunft Europas. Mehrsprachigkeit und Sprachenpolitik (pp. 145-158). Nomos-Verlag, Baden Baden.
Yankova, D. (2003). Towards Achieving Equivalence in Bulgarian-English Translation of Statutory Writing. Чуждоезиково обучение [Foreign Language Teaching] 3, 52-63.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Diana Yankova

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Access Policy and Content Licensing
All published articles on the ESNBU site are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes. The terms on which the article is published allow the posting of the published article (Version of Record) in any repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Note that prior to, and including, Volume 10, Issue 2, 2024, articles were licensed under the Non-commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. The transition to CC BY 4.0 is effective as of Volume 11, Issue 1, 2025.
In other words, under the CC BY 4.0 license users are free to
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Under the following terms:
Attribution (by) - You must give appropriate credit (Title, Author, Source, License), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notice: No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
If the law requires that the article be published in the public domain, authors will notify ESNBU at the time of submission, and in such cases the article shall be released under the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver CC0 1.0 Universal.
Copyright
Copyright for articles published in ESNBU are retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal. Authors retain full publishing rights and are encouraged to upload their work to institutional repositories, social academic networking sites, etc. ESNBU is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.
Exceptions to copyright policy
Occasionally ESNBU may co-publish articles jointly with other publishers, and different licensing conditions may then apply.