Abstract

This work takes a fresh look at legal language as one of the Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) that has been traditionally characterized as obscure and impenetrable for those outside the profession. I will show how metaphors in legal language provide referential meaning that is sometimes misconstrued by observers who may be unfamiliar with the procedural aspects of the US system of justice, and how those identified as conceptual metaphors in legal language are either _linguistic metaphors_ or some other rhetorical device, such as metonymies. I will then discuss the special challenges of transferring meaning from English into a foreign language during legal proceedings for the benefit of Limited English Proficient (LEP) participants in the process, such as litigants, witnesses, and criminal defendants. Taking into account the translation and interpreting studies that have had a bearing on the practice of judiciary interpreting in United States, and the results of a survey and virtual discussion with federally certified interpreters, I will describe some of the strategies used by these language professionals to convey metaphorical meaning to LEP court participants.