Court and Tribunal Adjournments and Related Documents in The United Kingdom and Spain. Spanish - English Legal Terminology , Structures and ‘Court-lish’ Translations

Abstract

Legal Translation is an essential division within a specialised translation. One of the most frequent documents in court communication is called ‘adjournment’. Thanks to this, every court party is aware of the importance of this legal document. However, this brief but frequent court document has not been analysed thoroughly, especially within a specialised translation. The purpose of this study is to analyse the internal structure of court adjournments, their terminology and the possible equivalence in the (Spanish-English) target language. The conclusion of this comparison will reveal important linguistic features in court English, coined here as ‘Court-lish’, and establish certain translation patterns in Spanish. The reason for this study is twofold: firstly, to give this court document prominence within specialised translations and, on the other hand, to ease effective communication if a court hearing is finally adjourned in any of the two analysed languages.