Lost in the Eurofog: The Textual Fit of Translated Law

This book explores the effects of EU membership on Polish legal language, focusing on the emergence of EU Polish and its characteristics.

In Lost in the Eurofog: The Textual Fit of Translated Law, the author delves into the significant ramifications of Poland's entry into the European Union on its legal language. Utilizing corpus-based methodologies, the Eurofog project meticulously explores how EU Polish interacts with established national laws, revealing the empirical effects of a substantial surge in translations on post-accession legal Polish. This comprehensive study stands out as one of the few thorough examinations of the dynamics of EU legal translation and its implications for national legal languages.

The book represents a pioneering effort to define EU Polish, which emerges as a unique variant of legal Polish shaped through translation processes. By applying Chesterman's concept of textual fit, the author illustrates the distinctions between translated and non-translated texts, providing empirical evidence from extensive corpora. This analysis highlights how the Polish eurolect diverges from both legal and general Polish at various structural levels, offering insights into the evolving nature of legal language in Poland.

Moreover, the findings are compared to the pre-accession legal framework, allowing the reader to trace the 'Europeanisation' of legal Polish. This exploration of recent transformations driven by the influx of EU translations offers valuable perspectives on the interplay between supranational law and national legal languages. Overall, Lost in the Eurofog is an essential resource for understanding the complexities of legal translation and its broader societal impacts.