De la ficha terminológica a la ficha traductológica

The complex variables involved in mediating between asymmetrical legal realities explain, to a great extent, the limitations of traditional terminological resources (particularly, bilingual legal dictionaries) as working tools for legal translators. After a brief review of these limitations, a new approach to the development of terminological resources is presented that responds to the real needs of legal translators and draws on advances in Legal Translation Studies. This change of paradigm is illustrated by a terminological database designed for the English-Spanish translation of technological law, more precisely, for the localization of software license agreements (mostly from the United States) for Spain. The lexicographical work is contextualized, and the features and advantages of the proposed terminological entries are described in detail. These entries are called “translation-oriented terminological entries” ( fichas traductológicas ) because of their distinctive translation dimension, particularly the inclusion of comments on the acceptability of terminological options on the basis of comparative legal analysis in different translation scenarios. This aspect greatly contributes to the added value of the approach, which is intended as a model for similar applications in legal translation.