Abstract: Based on a brief overview of the history of legal translation from English into Chinese, this paper reviews recent studies on the changes in Chinese legal language as a result of the influence of language contact, and analyses the challenges and opportunities in this field. The present research finds that previous studies mainly focused on legal translation activities and their influence on Chinese legal language in the late Qing dynasty and the early 20th century, with much emphasis on the study of legal language at the lexical level, including the source and formation of new legal terms, changes in their lexical meanings, and improper use of legal terms in English-Chinese translation. However, studies on changes in Chinese legal language in the contemporary context have been rare, and even less attention has been paid to the changes at the syntactic level. In addition, current studies have been based mainly on the qualitative approach to legal language without adequate evidence from a carefully-designed large corpus. It is suggested that a corpus-driven multi-level analysis from a diachronic perspective will provide more reliable data and contribute to exploring changes in Chinese legal language and figuring out the characteristics of Chinese legal language as influenced by language contact.

Keywords: English-Chinese legal translation; language contact; changes in Chinese legal language

摘要： 本文在梳理英文法律文献汉译现状的基础上，概述了近年来语言接触视角下中文法律语言变化的研究现状，简要剖析了目前该领域研究存在的问题和机遇。研究发现，从研究内容看，关于英汉翻译对中文法律语言影响的研究多关注晚清时期和20 世纪初期的法律译介活动及其影响，且主要集中在词汇层面，重在探讨中文法律术语的输入、新词形成与词义的演变，以及翻译造成的术语失范等现象，对当代法律语言变化的研究未给予足够重视，句法层面的研究也未得到应有的关注。论文指出，当前研究缺乏大规模数据支持，素材来源和考察范围有限。借助语料库语言学工具进行语料驱动的法律语言多层面嬗变历时研究，将有助于挖掘语言接触渗透下的中文法律语言的时代特征。

关键词: 英汉法律翻译, 语言接触, 中文法律语言变化