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07:39 Aug 11, 2010
This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other
English to English translations [PRO] Law/Patents - Law: Contract(s)
English term or phrase:it may submit
It may submit that the manager has constituted this committee.
What does "it may submit" mean? Will be there any change in the meaning if replaced with "it may be submitted"?
... that this is an error in the source text, it is just the sort of error that might easily be made by a non-native speaker, however good the standard of their English.
I think your own interpretation is correct, that this is simply the impersonal construction, which requires the passive 'be submitted' as you have correctly determined.
I think that's the whole point of Asker's question — it's looking increasingly as if the source text is flawed, and it may well be that the impersonal "It may be submitted that..." is in fact what was originally intended; perhaps Asker could tell us if the source text is reliable, native-speaker English or not?
"It" must refer to something, since somebody has got to do the submitting - it must be "the court" or "the defence" or "the other side" - unlike rain, submitting can't just happen without someone doing it.
Yes, nerino is right: it's impossible to tell without knowing more of the surrounding context; noramlly, the substitution you propose wouldn't make sense, but it all depends on the context, and indeed, if the text was correct in the first place!
I think that the previous sentence might clarify what the "it" refers to, could you please write it?
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Answers
27 mins confidence:
claim, put forward the view that
Explanation: We really do need more context, but one of the meanings of "submit" is "to put forward in respectful (e.g. legal) debate" (definition from Chambers dictionary), and this may be the sense in which it is being used here.
Armorel Young Local time: 02:13 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
The translation workplace 
