證據(jù)有人證與物證之分，“物證”，顧名思義大概是“物質(zhì)的證據(jù)”吧。于是就有人望文生義，把“物證”譯為“material 〔物質(zhì)的〕evidence〔證據(jù)〕” 了。

但是，從語(yǔ)言實(shí)踐看，“物證”并不是什么“material evidence”而是“physical evidence”;

1. On the other hand, police have never found a body or any physical evidence connecting him to the crimes he confessed to —— and later recented.

                                                         ——Master Detective, July 1989, p.38

2. The crime scene team located the knife used in the slaying along with some of Holland's bloody clothing and other physical evidence

                                                         ——True Detective, May 1989, p.31

如果不用“physical evidence”，也可用“real evidence”表示“物證”如：

3. evidence, real. Known also as "demonstrative" and "objective" evidence. That which is afforded by production and inspection of material objects.

                                                        ——L. B. Burzon, A Dictionary of Law

4. Evidence.  ...

The kinds of evidence usually produced are physical objects (real evidence), writtenstatements and documents (documentary evidence), testimony of the parties (personal evidence), and testimony of expert witnesses on the conclusions or inferences to be drawn from facts found by measurement, testing or other examination (expert or opinion evidence).

                                                       ——The Oxford Companion to Law

那末，“material evidence”不是“物證”又是什么呢？請(qǐng)看：

5. material evidence 實(shí)質(zhì)性證據(jù)，物證，對(duì)審理的事實(shí)有影響的證據(jù)

                                                       ——《英漢法律詞典》

其中的“物證”—解，顯然是對(duì)“material”一詞望文生義而誤解其實(shí)質(zhì)涵義的結(jié)果——在這里， “ material”并非什么“物質(zhì)”！那么這個(gè)“material”在法律文字中的實(shí)質(zhì)涵義又是什么呢？請(qǐng)看：