Polish and Bulgarian civil law contracts as statutory texts and their usage in translation didactics

Abstract

In this paper the author describes Polish and Bulgarian templates of civil law contracts and presents the following templates of texts: 1) internal organisation of texts and its graphical presentation, 2) obligatory and optional elements, 3) type of communication strategy chosen. To enable the comparative analysis of texts, a strong weighting towards its use in the language is recommended. Specific properties of legal texts include the following: identification of activities with the use of the thirdperson verb (singular or plural), frequent appearance of impersonal verb forms and passive voice, performative verbs, fixed idiomatic expressions, saturation with legal language. Textual properties are illustrated with corresponding examples in both languages. The author focuses particularly on translation difficulties which can occur in the translation process and emphasizes the need to use parallel texts in translation didactics.