Les problèmes d’équivalence terminologique dans les dictionnaires juridiques interlinguistiques

Abstract

Bilingual dictionaries are by no means tools without any type of communicative function. Rather, one of their main functions is to put into contact two worlds which are culturally different. If the realia do not exist in the target language, the terminology must find equivalents which represent those realia in a way in which they can be assumed and understood without any problem by the target audience. This may be case of the English judicial expression «common law», whose equivalents in French droit civil ou droit du citoyen or Spanish derecho consuetudinario attempt to comply with its generic and specific features. In this way, languages use their morphological and syntactic potential to fill in existing lexical gaps. Languages such as French and Spanish offer in certain areas of human activity, such as law or economy, a cultural heritage that makes them unique without isolating them.