Wie kompatibel sind Rechtstexte mit Translation-Memory-Systemen? Systematische Überlegungen zum Zusammenhang zwischen Textmerkmalen und Einsatznutzen der Übersetzungstechnologie

Since their advent in the mid-90s translation-memory (TM) systems have become increasingly important. In many relevant market areas they have become an essential precondition for a quality professional service. This is not so in the case of legal translators, who generally tend to rely on traditional competences and tools combined with terminology management software at the most. The reasons for this sceptical attitude towards TM technology, however, are neither linguistically nor textually justified. Analysing a choice of German legal texts, this paper attempts to highlight a series of characteristic features which in a number of specific translation situations can make the use of a TM tool useful and profitable, if not directly necessary.