太懶,好久沒寫文章了。這陣子看書思考寫讀書筆記,琢磨自己還沒太想明白的一些事兒。翻譯這塊兒有些荒廢了。以前做過一些詞匯總結(jié),但一直存在電腦里懶得整理出來放到簡(jiǎn)書上。前幾天看到魚子醬寫的proxy statement一文,咬牙切齒督促自己要把之前弄的「代理人」文章貼出來。內(nèi)容本身也沒什么技術(shù)含量,無非是抄抄元照、Black's Law Dictionary上的釋義。不過把幾個(gè)相近的詞放在一起總結(jié)梳理下,似乎能更好地理解它們的含義和區(qū)別。但愿能有些用吧!
「代理人」
1. Agent
One who is authorised to act for or in place of another; a representative.
注意與principal(代理關(guān)系中的本人;委托人;被代理人)的比較。
代理人:代理關(guān)系中的一方當(dāng)事人,即依照委托人的授權(quán),以委托人的名義從事代理活動(dòng)的人。
An agent?is a business representative who handles contractual arrangements between the principal and third persons.?
From Latin?agent- ‘doing’, from?agere.
2. Attorney
(a) Strictly, one who is designated to transact business for another; a legal agent. Also termed?attorney-in-fact; private attorney.
(b) A person who practices law; lawyer. Also termed attorney-at-law; public attorney.
代理人;法律事務(wù)代理人;
在英國(guó)舊時(shí),代理人分為「私人代理人」(private attorney) 和「法律事務(wù)代理人」(attorney at law)。前者又稱為「事實(shí)代理人」(attorney in fact)。(《元照》上的解釋內(nèi)容較多,就抄了這么簡(jiǎn)單一句)
Attorney in fact means "one with power of attorney to act for another; legal agent".
Attorney at law means "a licensed lawyer".
簡(jiǎn)言之,attorney有兩層含義:「代理人」和「律師」。
3. Delegate
(a) One who represents or acts for another person or a group.
(得到委托授權(quán)的)代表;代理人
(b)?Parliamentary law. A voting member of a convention, whether entitled to vote as an elected or appointed delegate, as an upgraded alternate, or ex officio.
(美)(被選舉或被委托參加特別會(huì)議的)眾議院議員;(全體選民選舉并授權(quán)在某黨派或州的政治集會(huì)上代表選民的)代表
注意不要混淆relegate和delegate。前者是“降級(jí);貶職;把……置于次要地位”,后者是“授權(quán);把(工作、權(quán)力等)委托給他人(尤指下屬);任命、指定”。
4. Proxy
One who is authorised to act as a substitute for another; especially in corporate law, a person who is authorised to vote another’s stock shares.
代理人;代表:尤用于公司法中,指由公司股東授予權(quán)利,代表其參加公司會(huì)議并投票的人。
該詞還有「授權(quán)」和「授權(quán)委托書,代理委托書」的含義。
5. Alternate
Parliamentary law.?A proxy for a delegate, usually chosen in the same manner as the delegate rather than chosen by the delegate. (此處delegate含義為delegate詞條中第b項(xiàng)釋義)
代理人;候補(bǔ)者;代替者
常用于alternate director (代理董事;替代董事)和alternate juror(候補(bǔ)陪審員;預(yù)備陪審員)。
此外,從布萊克詞典的英文釋義可看出,alternate是delegate(會(huì)議代表)的“替代者”,或者說“候補(bǔ)人員”。是不是這個(gè)詞的含義更傾向于「替代」「候補(bǔ)」而不是通常理解的「代理」呢?
6. Representative
(a) One who stands for or acts on behalf of another.
代表;(代位)繼承人;訴訟代理人
比如:sales representative(銷售代表)、personal representative(遺產(chǎn)代理人,一般指遺囑執(zhí)行人和遺產(chǎn)管理人)。
(b) A member of a legislature,especially of the lower house.
立法機(jī)構(gòu)成員。Representative大寫時(shí)表示美國(guó)眾議院議員。
查了下《葛傳椝英語(yǔ)慣用法詞典》,representative用作名詞是「代表」,但并不像delegate有「被派去當(dāng)代表」的意思。比較這兩句:
He represented me at the meeting. (他在會(huì)上代表我。)
He delegated me to the meeting. (他派我代表他到會(huì)。)