Why legal grammars are not, but should be written on genre-based corpora? Review of The Grammatical Structure of Legal English by Bázlik, Ambrus and Bęcławski (original) (raw)

A REVIEW OF THE LEGAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT WITH THE FOCUS ON ITS LEXICOGRAMMATICAL FEATURES

IJCIRAS, 2019

The article attempts to define legal language and shed light on the historical development of legal English. The article proceeds to provide a classification of legal language based on different approaches. This is followed by introducing some of the salient features of the legal writing. It is known that each occupation has developed its own type of language which we is known as genre. For example, areas of journalism, medicine have their own specific linguistic features which were developed to achieve certain communicative functions. Such features can be highlighted among others, at the phonological, semantic, syntactic, lexical and graphological levels. Similarly, the legal field is no exception to these specific features. However, the present study will be limited to the lexical and syntactic features of the legal language.

On Lexical and Syntactic Qualities of the English Language of Law

In all the countries, the law is written, construed and enforced through language. It is widely accepted that the English language of law is a recognizable phenomenon. Some assert it is peculiar. As such, it has frequently been criticized for its arcane and mysterious quality. The major objective of the present study is to analyze the English language of law to make it more comprehensible. The analysis of the English language of law in this paper has been divided into two major parts, and revolves around the following aspects: (1) the lexical and (2) syntactic properties.

A Corpus-Based Approach to Studies in Legal Phraseology: An Overview

International Journal of English Linguistics

The language of the law as it is called “legalese” has very distinctive lexical and structural patterns which in many ways different from the “traditional forms of language”. Its conservatism is linked directly to the need for unambiguous language that has already been tried and tested in the courts. By retaining to traditional lexis and structure lawyers can be confident that the language of the law is consistent and precise. This study aims to give some insights on apparent lexico-grammatical features characterised legal phraseology. The present study adopts a corpus-based approach to investigate those distinctive features of legal phraseology such as the uses binomial words, colligation of prepositions, prefabricated word combinations directly prescribed by law, and their semantic functions. This overview compiles data from the books, and empirical studies as well as theoretical and conceptual works conducted in the premises of legal phraseology. Some impl...