摘 要法律英语是一种非常正式的语体，为了体现其规范性和约束性，在法律文本中常常使用情态动词增强语气以达到准确，庄重的意。本文对各类不同法律文本中最常使用的三个情态动词——“shall”, “may”和“must”在文本中的翻译进行了探索和研究。作者大量援引权威双语法律文本中的例证，通过对“shall”，“may”，“must”的译法以及它们之间的翻译对比找出法律英语中情态动词的最佳译法，以期在今后的法律英语翻译中有其固定的翻译模式来作为参考， 减弱法律英语翻译的艰巨性的同时对法律翻译实践也有所裨益。21717
毕业论文关键词:法律英语；情态动词；shall；may；must
Abstract The legal English is a very formal language. In legal texts, modal verbs are used to be applied to express the imperative mood, presenting its normalization and binding force. This paper looks into the use of “shall”, “may”, and “must”, the three modal verbs most frequently used in legal documents, and examines the various ways to have them translated into target language. Drawing amply from authoritative bilingual sources for illustration and by means of the translation and comparison of these three modal verbs― “shall”, “may” and “must”, the author attempts to find the best translation of these modal verbs in legal English, which can be regarded as the fixed mode of translation as a reference in order to reduce the difficulty of translating legal English as well as benefit of legal English practice in future.
Key words: legal English; modal verbs; shall; may; must
The Translation of Modal Verbs in Legal English
Contents
摘 要    i
Abstract    ii
I. Introduction    1
II. Relative Exposition    2
2.1 Modal Verbs    2
2.2 The Features of Legal English    3
III. The Translation of Main Modal Verbs in Legal English    4
3.1 The Translation of Modal Verb “Shall” in Legal English    4
3.2 The Translation of Modal Verb “May” in Legal English    7
3.3 The Translation of Modal Verb “Must” in Legal English    9
IV. The Comparison of Main Modal Verbs’ Translation    9
4.1 Comparison Between the Translation of “Shall” and “Must”    10
4.2 Comparison Between the Translation of “Shall” and “May”    12
4.3 Comparison Between the Translation of “May” and “Must”    13
V. Conclusion    14
Bibliography    16
Acknowledgements    17
I. Introduction

With the continuous development of the socialist market economy in our country, the legalization process in our country are also accelerating, the international legal interactions are increasingly active, which leads us to use comprehensive legal system and regulations of some developed country for reference. The English-Chinese translation of law plays a role of bridge on judicial exchanges. Because the law and regulations represent the will of the ruling class and restrict people’s social behavior, it usually requires that people “shall”, “may”, “must”, “should” or “do not” to do things usually with the imperative mood. These conventional behavior is often expressed through the modal verbs “shall”, “may” and “must”. Thus, more and more scholars and experts are focusing on the study of legal language and translation, analyzing the blurred meaning of some modal verbs in various legal texts, so as to try their best to keep the legal language standardization and uniformity as much as possible. 论情态动词在法律英语中的翻译:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_14062.html