Legal Language As A Special Language Structural Features Of English Legal Language

Author : Gaby Schneidereit
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3638654494
Total Pages : 53 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Legal Language as a Special Language: Structural Features of English Legal Language written by Gaby Schneidereit and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-06 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1-, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Anglistisches Institut), course: Domain Specific English Language - Language and Law, 5 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The English language has taken over the key role in international trade, legislation and policy-making. It has achieved "the enhanced status ...] as the dominant world language which] has led to an increased demand for the training of competent specialists able to mediate" (Alcaraz Varo/Hughes, 2002: 1). This goes along with a "phenomenal increase in the teaching of ...] 'English for special (or specific) purposes' " (ibid.: 2). What is the reason for this development? This piece of work might give an answer; it dedicates itself to domain specific English language: language and law. It concentrates on the characteristics of the structure of legal English in particular. An overview of the central structural features is given, without claiming completeness. Legal professionals aim at a precise explanation of facts which should leave no doubts. This aim forces them to use a certain kind of language pattern, such as including a high amount of definitions in legal texts, along with numerous complex and ancient phrases deriving from Law French and plentiful enumerations which can all together form a single sentence covering several lines. Dependent on which party they represent, lawyers make frequent use of features that reduce the agent in his identity while emphasizing the action - a matter of strategy which has the impeding of comprehension as a consequence. Therefore, the field of law becomes completely unapproachable for laymen, who are scarcely able to follow legal discourse. Even well-educated native speakers often find it hard to understand the language used in court. However, the access to one's rights is important. To begin with, the reader will be provided with an

Author : Marit Blömer
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3668016828
Total Pages : 21 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Structural Features of Legal Language written by Marit Blömer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 2,3, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: This paper deals with a specific English language – the legal language. I will focus on a particular aspect of this field - the characteristics of the structure of legal English. Therefore I will give an overview of the central structural features which are typical for legal language. Legal professionals strive for a precise explanation of facts. This aim forces them to use a certain kind of language patterns; including a high amount of definitions in legal texts, as well as numerous complex and ancient phrases deriving from Law French and plentiful enumerations which can all together form a single sentence covering several lines. Considering these special language patterns, the field of law, especially the legal language, becomes completely unapproachable for laymen, as it is almost impossible for them to follow legal discourse or understand legal contracts as well as laws and provisions. Even well-educated native speakers often find it hard to understand the language used in court. But the access to one’s rights and duties is important in a community, so I decided to emphasize the differences between legal language and colloquial language and to show which structural features are characteristic for legal language. At first I will provide the reader with an overall definition of English as a special language, before I will have a closer look at legal English as a special language – the main topic of this essay. To show the structural features of legal language I will concentrate on three main characteristics in the structure of legal language – in my opinion the three most important ones, even though there are other important attributes as well. In a last step I will point out how these legal structures are used in real life. Therefore I will analyze a contract as well as a legislative text and think about ways to simplify the legal language used there to make it easier to follow such texts.

Author : Peter M. Tiersma
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226803036
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Legal Language written by Peter M. Tiersma and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history of legal language slices through the polysyllabic thicket of legalese. The text shows to what extent legalese is simply a product of its past and demonstrates that arcane vocabulary is not an inevitable feature of our legal system.

Author : Peter M. Tiersma
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226803029
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Legal Language written by Peter M. Tiersma and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999-02 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history of legal language slices through the polysyllabic thicket of legalese. The text shows to what extent legalese is simply a product of its past and demonstrates that arcane vocabulary is not an inevitable feature of our legal system.

Author : David Mellinkoff
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1592446906
Total Pages : 540 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Language of the Law written by David Mellinkoff and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2004-05-13 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells what the language of the law is, how it got that way and how it works out in the practice. The emphasis is more historical than philosophical, more practical than pedantic.

Author : Davide S. Giannoni
Publisher : Peter Lang
ISBN 13 : 9783034304436
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Researching Language and the Law written by Davide S. Giannoni and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2010 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume reflects the latest work of scholars specialising in the linguistic and legal aspects of normative texts across languages (English, Danish, French, Italian, Spanish) and law systems. Like other domains of specialised language use, legal discourse is subject to the converging pressures of internationalisation and of emerging practices that destabilise well-established norms and routines. In an integrated, interdependent context, supranational laws, rules and procedures are gradually developed and harmonised to regulate issues that can no longer be dealt with by national laws alone, as in the case of the European Union. The contributors discuss the impact of such developments on the construction, evolution and hybridisation of legal texts, analysed both linguistically and from the practitioner's standpoint.

Author : Christopher Williams
Publisher : Peter Lang
ISBN 13 : 9783039114443
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tradition and Change in Legal English written by Christopher Williams and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2007 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume the author examines verbal constructions in prescriptive legal texts written in English. Modal auxiliaries such as shall, may and must are analysed, as well as indicative tenses such as the present simple, and also non-finite constructions such as the -ing form and -ed participles. Results are based on specially compiled corpora of prescriptive texts coming from a wide range of English-speaking countries and also international organizations such as the European Union and the UN. The author also analyses the nature, extent and impact of the calls for change in legal language coming from the Plain Language Movement. Although legal language tends to be depicted as being highly conservative and unchanging, the author shows that in certain parts of the English-speaking world a minor revolution would appear to be taking place, while in other parts there is greater resistance to change.

Author : Heikki E.S. Mattila
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317163028
Total Pages : 613 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Comparative Legal Linguistics written by Heikki E.S. Mattila and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 613 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines legal language as a language for special purposes, evaluating the functions and characteristics of legal language and the terminology of law. Using examples drawn from major and lesser legal languages, it examines the major legal languages themselves, beginning with Latin through German, French, Spanish and English. This second edition has been fully revised, updated and enlarged. A new chapter on legal Spanish takes into account the increasing importance of the language, and a new section explores the use (in legal circles) of the two variants of the Norwegian language. All chapters have been thoroughly updated and include more detailed footnote referencing. The work will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of legal history and theory, comparative law, semiotics, and linguistics. It will also be of interest to legal translators and terminologists.

Author : Dennis Kurzon
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027250626
Total Pages : 168 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Discourse of Silence written by Dennis Kurzon and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work discusses the discourse of silence and looks at how people relate to silence in specific conte×ts. It e×amines the application of semiotic tools to e×plore several facets of silence in everyday conversation, and reviews various studies of silence that have been published. The book interprets silence in terms of modality in order to distinguish between intentional and unintentional silence. It also presents an analysis of the silence of characters in films, biblical and cinematic te×t in which the terms of reference generally e×pand - from the silent answer, through the silencing of characters by authors, to silence as a feature of the generation gap.

Author : Anna Trosborg
Publisher : Gunter Narr Verlag
ISBN 13 : 9783823350897
Total Pages : 182 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rhetorical Strategies in Legal Language written by Anna Trosborg and published by Gunter Narr Verlag. This book was released on 1997 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: