Structural Features of Legal Language

Structural Features of Legal Language
Author: Marit Blömer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 21
Release: 2015-07-16
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 3668016828

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.

Legal Language as a Special Language: Structural Features of English Legal Language

Legal Language as a Special Language: Structural Features of English Legal Language
Author: Gaby Schneidereit
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 3638654494

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

The Oxford Handbook of Language and Law

The Oxford Handbook of Language and Law
Author: Peter Meijes Tiersma
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 665
Release: 2012-03-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199572127

This book provides a state-of-the-art account of past and current research in the interface between linguistics and law. It outlines the range of legal areas in which linguistics plays an increasing role and describes the tools and approaches used by linguists and lawyers in this vibrant new field. Through a combination of overview chapters, case studies, and theoretical descriptions, the volume addresses areas such as the history and structure of legal languages, its meaning and interpretation, multilingualism and language rights, courtroom discourse, forensic identification, intellectual property and linguistics, and legal translation and interpretation. Encyclopedic in scope, the handbook includes chapters written by experts from every continent who are familiar with linguistic issues that arise in diverse legal systems, including both civil and common law jurisdictions, mixed systems like that of China, and the emerging law of the European Union.

Legal Language

Legal Language
Author: Peter M. Tiersma
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 1999
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780226803036

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.

The Language of the Law

The Language of the Law
Author: David Mellinkoff
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 540
Release: 2004-05-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1592446906

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.

Legal Argument

Legal Argument
Author: James A. Gardner
Publisher: LexisNexis/Matthew Bender
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2007
Genre: Law
ISBN:

Legal Argument: The Structure and Language of Effective Advocacy is a full-featured guide designed primarily for law students in research, writing, analysis and trial advocacy classes and moot court programs. Inside you'll find detailed explanations of how lawyers construct legal arguments and practical guidelines to the process of molding the raw materials of litigation--cases, statutes, testimony, documents, common sense--into instruments of persuasive advocacy. You'll also find writing guidelines that show you how to present a well-constructed legal argument in writing in a way that legal decision makers will find persuasive. The centerpiece of this indispensable work is its syllogism-based step-by-step method, designed to walk the advocate through the process of crafting a winning argument. Intuitive organization presents the material in five parts: Part I sets out a general methodology for constructing legal arguments. Part II focuses more closely on the construction of persuasive, well-grounded legal premises, and covers the effective integration of legal doctrine and evidence into the argument's structure. Part III shows how to put the method to work by giving two detailed examples of the construction of complete legal arguments from scratch. Part IV provides a detailed protocol for reducing well-constructed legal arguments to written form, along with a concrete illustration of that process. It also provides concrete advice on how to recognize and avoid a host of common mistakes in the written presentation of legal arguments. Part V moves from the basics into more advanced techniques of persuasive legal argument, including rhetorical tactics like framing and emphasis, how to respond to arguments, maintaining professionalism in advocacy, and the ethical limits of argument.

Logical Models of Legal Argumentation

Logical Models of Legal Argumentation
Author: H. Prakken
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9401156689

In the study of forms of legal reasoning, logic and argumentation theory long followed separate tracks. `Legal logicians' tended to focus on a deductive reconstruction of justifying a decision, disregarding the dialectical process leading to the chosen justification. Others instead emphasized the adversarial and discretionary nature of legal reasoning, involving reasonable evaluation of alternative choices, and the use of analogical reasoning. Recently, however, developments in Artificial Intelligence and Law have paved the way for overcoming this separation. Logic has widened its scope to defensible argumentation, and informal accounts of analogy and dialectics have inspired the construction of computer programs. Thus the prospect is emerging of an integrated logical and dialectical account of legal argument, adding to the understanding of legal reasoning, and providing a formal basis for computer tools that assist and mediate legal debates while leaving room for human initiative. This book presents contributions to this development. From a logical point of view it covers topics such as evaluating conflicting arguments, weighing reasons, modelling legal disputes as a dialogue game, the role of the burden of proof, the relation between principles, rules, reasons and facts, and the relation between deductive and nondeductive arguments. Written by leading scholars in the field and building on recent developments in logic and Artificial Intelligence, the chapters provide a state-of-the-art account of research on the logical aspects of legal argument.

The Legal Language of Scottish Burghs

The Legal Language of Scottish Burghs
Author: Joanna Kopaczyk
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2013-08-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0190243317

This book offers an innovative, corpus-driven approach to historical legal discourse. It is the first monograph to examine textual standardization patterns in legal and administrative texts on the basis of lexical bundles, drawing on a comprehensive corpus of medieval and early modern legal texts. The book's focus is on legal language in Scotland, where law--with its own nomenclature and its own repertoire of discourse features--was shaped and marked by the concomitant standardizing of the vernacular language, Scots, a sister language to the English of the day. Joanna Kopaczyk's study is based on a unique combination of two methodological frameworks: a rigorous corpus-driven data analysis and a pragmaphilological, context-sensitive qualitative interpretation of the findings. Providing the reader with a rich socio-historical background of legal discourse in medieval and early modern Scottish burghs, Kopaczyk traces the links between orality, community, and law, which are reflected in discourse features and linguistic standardization of legal and administrative texts. In this context, the book also revisits important ingredients of legal language, such as binomials or performatives. Kopaczyk's study is grounded in the functional approach to language and pays particular attention to referential, interpersonal, and textual functions of lexical bundles in the texts. It also establishes a connection between the structure and function of the recurrent patterns, and paves the way for the employment of new methodologies in historical discourse analysis.

Legal English

Legal English
Author: Rupert Haigh
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2018-06-14
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1351371436

English is the dominant language of international business relations, and a good working knowledge of the language is essential for today’s legal or business professional. Legal English provides a highly practical approach to the use of English in commercial legal contexts, and covers crucial law terminology and legal concepts. Written with the needs of both students and practitioners in mind, this book is particularly suitable for readers whose first language is not English but need to use English on a regular basis in legal contexts. The book covers both written and oral legal communication in typical legal situations in a straightforward manner. As well as including chapters on grammar and punctuation for legal writing, the book features sections on contract-drafting, language for negotiation, meetings and telephone conversations. This edition contains additional troubleshooting tips for legal writing, guidance on good style, and new sections on writing law essays and applying for legal positions.

Language Typology and Syntactic Description: Volume 3

Language Typology and Syntactic Description: Volume 3
Author: Timothy Shopen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 444
Release: 1985-07-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521318990

The three volumes of Language typology and syntactic description offer a unique survey of syntactic and morphological structure in the languages of the world. Topics covered include parts of speech; passives; complementation; relative clauses; adverbial clauses; inflectional morphology; tense; aspect and mood; and deixis. The major ways these notions are realized u=in the languages of the world are explored, and the contributors provide brief sketches of relevant aspects of representative languages. Each volume is written in an accessible style with new concepts explained and exemplified as they are introduced. Although each volume can be read independently, together they provide a major work of reference that will serve as a manual for field workers and anyone interested in cross-linguistic generalizations.