What Is Legal Language and Its Characteristics
The main characteristics of legal language are therefore as follows: first, I will give the reader a general definition of specific languages and explain why they should be considered a variety of a language; Later, I will illustrate this with the example of the language of the law. Subsequently, the foundations of the structural analysis of legal English are laid. Language must serve as a vehicle for conveying what the law is. But legal language doesn`t really seem to be a good package for legal content. Therefore, experts are asked to break down the barrier and mediate between the language of the law and common language. Does legal language then function more as an obstacle than as a vehicle? This issue will have to be dealt with in the next section. One of the great paradoxes of the legal profession is that, on the one hand, lawyers are among the most notorious authors. Why do lawyers who excel at communicating with a jury seem unable to write an ordinary and understandable English sentence in a contract, deed or will? Tiersma n.p. There are many problems related to legal language, which are as follows: For international lawyers, communicating with clients and other professionals from all cultures requires transnational legal awareness and cross-cultural linguistic awareness. T92 [10] Regardless of the form of legal writing, legal and language skills are an essential part of higher education and professional training. [11] The aim of this research is to examine the specificities of the language of deeds, wills and deeds of assignment in order to show the relationship and differences between them and the general syntactic structures and semantics of the English language. Repetition and unusual constructions. In the field of semantics, the result shows that legal lexemes consist mainly of technical vocabulary.
Duplicates also shape legal language. This is a situation where synonymous words are used simultaneously in an environment. Other semantic discoveries include the use of foreign words/phrases and local terms. Finally, there is evidence of punctuation abuse. The characteristics of legal language have not yet been exhausted. Other unusual constructions can be seen in legal texts. The same author, Tiersma, points out that legal language is full of formulation and redundancy, often containing several negative, long, complex and impersonal constructs. Sometimes judges refer to themselves as “courts” instead of using the “I.” Today, definitions are generally descriptive, meaning they are used on a usage basis, but in legal language they are prescriptive. Telegraphic language is also rich in legal language. In a normal judicial session, this is usually understood: from 1066, Latin was the language of formal documents and statutes.
But that was not the language of legal advocacy or debate. The Plea Statute, issued in France 1356, stipulated that all trials should be recorded in English, but in Latin. In prehistoric Britain, traditional common law was discussed in the vernacular (see Celtic Law). Legal language and legal tradition changed with the waves of conquerors over the following centuries. Roman Britain (after the conquest of 43 AD) followed the Roman legal tradition and its legal language was Latin. After the Roman withdrawal from Britain around 410 and the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, the dominant tradition was rather Anglo-Saxon law, discussed in colloquial Germanic language (Old English) and written in Old English since about 600, beginning with Æthelberht`s law. After the Norman invasion of England in 1066, French Anglo-Norman became the official language of the court in England for almost 300 years until the Pleading in English Act of 1362 (and remained in low use for another 300 years), while medieval Latin was used for written documents for over 650 years. However, some English technical terms have been retained (see Anglo-Saxon Law: Language and Dialect for more details). While the legal language in the Middle Ages combined Latin, French and English to avoid any ambiguity. According to Walter Probert, lawyers, beginning in the twentieth century, often manipulated language to make their campaign ideals more convincing. [12] Legal language is sometimes difficult to understand because many difficult words and phrases are used. Legal language uses a large amount of specialized terminology unknown to the layman, and most of these terms come from French and Latin.
The scope and scope of legal language is very broad, because legal language deals with the common man. There is a general view (धारणा) regarding legal language that an ordinary man cannot understand legal language because it is a technical issue. Only legal experts are able to understand the technicality of legal language because they have the ability to understand it. It is important that the public understand consumer materials. These are documents that have a direct impact on their rights and obligations. This includes wills, medical consents and consents to search, indemnification, legal advice, petitions, orders and warnings. For example, it is necessary to understand the ideas inscribed on the acts that one signs in order to fully understand the consequences of what one signs. No matter how technical and complicated the legal language seems, the fact that the terms used consist of grammatical terms remains. In other words, the language of law, although technical, can be studied linguistically. For Crandell and Naerssen, quoted in Ezekulie, the interest of linguists within the profession is shared.
They put it this way: the development of legal English is closely linked to the history of Great Britain. For several centuries, English remained the language spoken by the majority of the population, while almost all texts were written in French or Latin. I give, create and bequeath in equal parts all the remains, remains and remains of my property that I may possess at the time of my death, real, personal and mixed, of whatever nature and wherever they may be, including all property that I may acquire or to which I am entitled after the execution of this will, absolutely and forever, to ARCHIE HOOVER, LUCY HOOVER, his wife, and ARCHIBALD HOOVER, pro capital, to each of them who lives ninety (90) days after my death. Tiersma n.p. a) Operational legal documents: This includes pleadings, motions, orders, contracts, deeds and wills. They tend to use a lot of legal language. Different types of people fall into the realm of legal language. However, some people are mandatory legal experts, and others are not mandatory legal experts because they have no legal knowledge.
The characteristic of a special language is its use by experts in a particular field or subject to communicate with each other. Therefore, the elements of a group language are inherent, but it can rather be described as a mixture of group language and special language, especially when the two main characteristics merge, namely its exclusivity and its relationship to a specific subject. The emphasis on the subject is a demarcation criterion that dominates much more, so that the character of the group becomes only marginal. The following thesis is entirely dedicated to the English language specific to the field – language and law. It focuses on a particular aspect of this area: the characteristics of the structure of legal English. My essay provides an overview of the central structural features that characterize legal language, but does not claim to be exhaustive. Further examination of the structure of legal language could help to find answers to the questions raised above. Lawyers are trying to get an accurate clarification of the facts, which should leave no doubt. This goal requires them to use a certain type of language model: looking for precise meanings in a specialized dictionary, including a large number of definitions in legal texts, as well as many complex and ancient sentences derived from Legal French and many enumerations, all of which can form a single sentence with multiple lines. Depending on the party they represent, lawyers often use characteristics that reduce the identity of the agent while emphasizing action – a matter of strategy that hinders understanding. The resulting problem is that the field of law becomes completely inaccessible to laymen, as they are barely able to follow the legal discourse.
Even well-trained native speakers often struggle to understand the language in court. However, access to one`s rights is important. People, especially when they sit in the dock as accused, need to understand the law in order to know how to behave properly. Since the 1970s, lawyers, doctors and business people have increasingly faced language problems in their work.
