Semantic and pragmatic features of legal language

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Introduction

The exact technical sphere is connected to avalanche process of increase of an information stream and introduction of new terms in the scientific and technical literature that demands specification and judgment at performance general scientific and technical translations from one language on another translators - linguists at the present stage of development of engineering science. Scientific and technical progress and an intensification of the international economic and technical cooperation raise a role of terminological lexicon in the modern languages.

In this connection there is a sharp necessity of intensive studying of a modern condition of scientific and technical lexicon, its development and interaction with household speech and a literary language.

The aim of the given work consists in a theoretical substantiation of a question on features of Semantic and pragmatic features of Legal language.

The aim of work has demanded the decision of the following specific tasks:

- To consider features of the Style of Official Documents;

- To study features of the legal genre;

- To consider the Selected problems of LL description in the relevance-theoretic

framework;

- To study the Bases of the English Legal Language;

- To consider features of the Legal translation in international settings and the training

of lawyer linguists and Legal translation and method.

Object of research in the given work is Legal language.

Subject is Semantic and pragmatic features of Legal language.

Theoretical value - the given work brings the contribution to development of theoretical aspects of studying of Semantic and pragmatic features of Legal language.

Practical value is, that the concrete theoretical material can be used in training courses under the theory of language, linguistics of the text, functional grammar, stylistics, rhetoric, literary criticism, transation theory, lectures on stylistics, the literature and other disciplines.

During our work we used the works on the translation theory of such linguists as Levitskaya T.R., Fiterman A.M., Komissarov V.N., Alimov V.V., Shveytser A.D., Garbovskiy N.K., Dmitrieva L.F., Galperin I.R., Arnold I.V., Yakusheva I.V., van Deik, Kolshanskiy and others. We used also the articles from the the periodical editions.

Concerning the aim and the tasks we have used such method as a descriptive one, the method of the experience, the contextual method and the comparative method. These methods weren't used as the isolated methods, they were used in their complex to satisfy the aim and the task in the best way.

1. The Style of Official Documents

1.1 Some features of the Style of Official Documents

The style of official documents, or officials as it is sometimes called, is not homogeneous and is represented by the following sub-styles, or varieties: Danet, B. (1985). “Legal discourse” in T. van Dijk (ed). Handbook of Discourse Analysis. New York: Academic Press, 273-91.

1. the language of business documents,

2. the language of legal documents,

3. the language of diplomacy,

4. the language of military documents.

Like other styles of language, this style has a definite communicative aim and accordingly has its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means. The main aim of this type of communication is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking. These parties may be:

a) the state and the citizen, or citizen and citizen (jurisdiction);

b) a society and its members (statute or ordinance);

c) two or more enterprises or bodies (business correspondence or contracts);

d) two or more governments (pacts, treaties);

e) a person in authority and a subordinate (orders, regulations, authoritative directions);

f) the board or presidium and the assembly or general meeting (procedures acts, minutes), etc.

In other words, the aim of communication in this style of language is to reach agreement between two contracting parties. Even protest against violations of statutes, contracts, regulations, etc., can also be regarded as a form by which normal cooperation is sought on the basis of previously attained concordance.

The most general function of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of the style. The most striking, though not the most essential feature, is a special system of clich terms and set expressions by which each sub-style can easily be recognized, for example: I beg to inform you; I beg to move; I second the motion; provisional agenda; the above-mentioned; hereinafter named; on behalf of; private advisory; Dear sir; We remain, your obedient servants.

In fact, each of the subdivisions of this style has its own peculiar terms, phrases and expressions which differ from the corresponding terms, phrases and expressions of other variants of this style. Thus, in finance we find terms like extra revenue; taxable capacities; liability to profit tax. Terms and phrases like high contracting parties; to ratify an agreement; memorandum; pact; protectorate; extra-territorial status; plenipotentiary will immediately brand the utterance as diplomatic. In legal language, examples are: to deal with a case; summary procedure; a body of judges; as laid down in; the succeeding clauses of agreement; to reaffirm faith in fundamental principles; to establish the required conditions; the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law.

The vocabulary is characterized not only by the use of special terminology but the choice of lofty (bookish) words and phrases: plausible (=possible); to inform (=to tell); to assist (=to help); to cooperate (=to work together); to promote (=to help something develop); to secure (=to make certain) social progress; with the following objectives/ends (=for these purposes); to be determined/resolved (=to wish); to endeavour (=to try); to proceed (=to go); inquire (to ask).

Likewise, other varieties of official languages have their special nomenclature, which is conspicuous in the text, and therefore easily discernible.

Besides the special nomenclature characteristic of each variety of the style, there is a feature common to all these varieties? the use of abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions. Some of them are well-known, for example, M.P. (Member of Parliament); Gvt. (government); H.M.S. (Her Majesty? s Steamship); $ (dollar); Ltd (Limited). But there are a few that have recently sprung up. A very interesting group of acronyms comprises the names of the USA presidents: FDR? Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and accordingly FDR-drive in New York; JFK? John Fitzgerald Kennedy and JFK Airport in New York; LBJ? Lyndon Baines Johnson; W? for America? s President George Walker Bush, but his father is simply George Bush though his full name is George Herbert Walker Bush; POTUS, VPOTUS and FLOTUS? accordingly President/Vice President/First Lady of the United States.

There are so many abbreviations and acronyms in official documents that there are special addenda in dictionaries to decode them. These abbreviations are particularly abundant in military documents. Here they are used not only as conventional symbols but as signs of the military code, which is supposed to be known only to the initiated. Examples are: DAO (Divisional Ammunition Officer); adv. (advance); atk. (attack); obj. (object); A/T (anti-tank); ATAS (Air Transport Auxiliary Service).

Another feature of the style is the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning. There is no room for words with contextual meaning or for any kind of simultaneous realization of two meanings, as in the other matter-of-fact styles. In military documents sometimes metaphorical names are given to mountains, rivers, hills, or villages, but these metaphors are perceived as code signs and have no aesthetic value, as in: Danet, B. (1985). “Legal discourse” in T. van Dijk (ed). Handbook of Discourse Analysis. New York: Academic Press, 273-91.

? 2.102 d. Inf. Div. continues atk. 26 Feb. 45 to captive objs Spruce Peach and Cherry and prepares to take over objs Plum and Apple after capture by CCB, 5th armd Div.?

Words with emotive meaning are also not to be found in official documents.

Even in the style of scientific prose some words may be found which reveal the attitude of the writer, his individual evaluation of the fact and events of the issue. But no such words are to be found in official style, except those which are used in business letters as conventional phrases of greeting or close, as Dear Sir; yours faithfully.

As in all other functional styles, the distinctive properties appear as a system. It is impossible to single out a style by its vocabulary only, recognizable though it always is. The syntactical pattern of the style is as significant as the vocabulary though not perhaps so immediately apparent. Gutt, E.-A. (1998). “Pragmatic aspects of translation: Some relevance-theory observations” in L. Hickey (ed.). Pragmatics of Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 41-53.

Perhaps the most noticeable of all syntactical features are the compositional patterns of the variants of this style. Thus, business letters have a definite compositional pattern, namely, the heading giving the address of the writer and the date, the name of the addressee and his address. The usual parts of the business paper are:

1. Heading. The heading, which includes the sender? s name, postal and telegraphic addresses, telephone number as well as reference titles of the sender and recipient, is printed at the top of the notepaper. Note: in the United Kingdom all companies registered after 23rd November, 1916, must give the names of the directors, and if any of them are not British by origin, their nationality must be also printed.

2. Date. The date should always be printed in the top right-hand corner in the order: day, month, year, e.g. 21st May, 2004 (21/5/04). Another order is usually employed in the United States: May 21st, 2004 (5/21/04).

3. Name and address, i.e. the inside address or the direction. The inside address is typed in three, four or more lines whichever is necessary, either at the beginning of the letter, or at the end, e.g., Messrs. Adams and Wilkinson, / 4, Finsbury Square, / London, E.C.2., England.

4. Salutation. The salutation may be: Sir, Sirs, Gentlemen (never? Gentleman?), Dear Sirs (never? Dear Gentlemen), Madam, Dear Madam (for both married and unmarried ladies), or Mesdames (plural). Dear Mr., or Dear Mister should never be used! Dear Mr. Jones, (Mrs. Brown / Miss Smith) may only be used when the sender is fairly intimate with the person receiving the letter.

5. Reference. Underlined heading should look as follows: Re: Your Order No 12345. Re is not an abbreviation of? regarding?, but a Latin word meaning? in the matter?.

6. Opening. If you are hesitating for a phrase with which to commence your letter, one of the following will suit your purpose: In reply / with reference / referring to your letter of?; in accordance with / compliance with / pursuance of your order No.; we greatly appreciate your letter of?

7. Body. The body is the subject matter that should be concise but not laconic. The sentences should not be too long, the whole matter should be broken into reasonably short paragraphs which should be properly spaced.

8. Closing or the complimentary close. It usually looks something like this: Yours faithfully / truly / sincerely / cordially (not respectfully as it is too servile). Your obedient servant is used by the British civil service, i.e. by all non-warlike branches of the British state administration. The most appropriate closing is: Awaiting your early reply with interest / Hoping there will be no further complaints of this nature / Thanking you in advance for any information you can offer.

9. Stamp (if any) and signatures. The closing, with the signature following it, is made to slope off gradually so that the end of the signature just reaches the right hand margin of the letter.

10. Enclosures. The Word? Enclosure? should be written either in full or in its abbreviated form? Enc.? Usually at the bottom left-hand corner of the letter.

Consider the structure of a business letter below:

Mansfield and Co. 59 High Street Swanage (=the address of the sender) 14 August, 2006 (=the date) 22 Fleet Street London (= the address of the party addressed) Dear Sir, (=salutation) We beg to inform you that by order and for account of Mr. Jones of Manchester, we have taken the liberty of drawing upon you for $45 at three months? date to the order of Mr. Sharp. We gladly take this opportunity of placing our services at your disposal, and shall be pleased if you frequently make use of them. (=body) Truly yours, Mansfield and Co. (=closing) by Mary Smith

Almost every official document has its own compositional design. Pacts and statutes, orders and minutes, codes and memoranda? all have more or less definite form, and it will not be an exaggeration to state that the form of the document is itself informative, inasmuch as it tells something about the matter dealt with.

An official document usually consists of a preamble, main text body and a finalizing (concluding) part.

The preamble is usually a statement at the beginning of the document explaining what it is about and stating the parties of the agreement, e.g.? The States concluding this Treaty (Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons), hereinafter referred to as the? Parties to the Treaty?? have agreed as follows??. The most important words and phrases are often capitalized as well as the beginnings of the paragraphs in very long sentences listing the crucial issues.

The main text body constitutes the central and most important part of the document. It consists of articles? individual parts of a document, usually numbered ones, which state the conditions on which the parties reach their agreement. For example, Article I of the above cited Treaty begins:? Each nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly??

The finalizing part comprises the signatures of the duly authorized people that have signed the document; the amount of copies of the document; the date (more often than not, stated by words, not by figures); the place:? IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, duly authorized, have signed this Treaty. DONE in triplicate, at the cities of Washington, London and Moscow, this first day of July one thousand nine hundred sixty-eight?.

Depending on the type of document, the composition and content of its individual parts may slightly vary as, for example, in business contracts setting the conditions binding two parties. A business contract consists of a standard text and changeable elements. Gutt, E.-A. (1998). “Pragmatic aspects of translation: Some relevance-theory observations” in L. Hickey (ed.). Pragmatics of Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 41-53.

In modern linguistics, standard text structures intended for information presentation are called frames. A frame is understood as asset language structure with changeable elements. The changeable elements within a text are called slots.

Consider a preamble to a commercial agreement as an example of a frame.

This Agreement is made this ____ day of ______, 2007, by and between _________, (a ________ corporation with its principle office at ________) or (an individual with an office and mailing address at_______) (? Agent?), and (company name), a corporation organized and existing under the laws of_________, with its principle place of business at __________.

Here, in the above frame of an agreement the blank spaces represent the slots to be filled with slot fillers (by the date, company names, addresses, etc.).

But a text frame seldom has the form of a text with blank spaces. More often than not a frame is a standard text with stable and changeable parts, for example:

________ by this Agreement does not grant to Agent any rights in or license to _______? s trademarks, trade names or service marks. _______ reserves all such rights to itself. Agent shall not utilize, without _______? s express, prior and written consent, any ________ trade or service marks on trade names, and will promptly report to _______ any apparent unauthorized use by third parties in the Territory of _______'s trade or service marks or trade names.

In the above text frame the non-italicized text fragments are presumed to be changeable depending on the subject and conditions of the Agreement, e.g.? prior and written consent? may be replaced by? oral consent?, etc.

The task of a translator translating official documents is to find target language equivalents of the source text frames and use them in translation as standard substitutes, filling the slots with frame fillers in compliance with the document content.

The syntax of official or business documents is characterized by the frequent use of non-finite forms? Gerund, Participle, Infinitive (Considering that?; in order to achieve cooperation in solving the problems?), and complex structures with them, such as the Complex Object (We expect this to take place), Complex Subject (This is expected to take place), the Absolute Participial Construction (The conditions being violated, it appears necessary to state that?)

In this respect, consider the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations which clearly illustrates the most peculiar form of the arrangement and syntax of an official document.

Charter of the united nations

We the People of the United Nations Determined

TO SAVE succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

TO REAFFIRM faith in fundamental rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

TO ESTABLISH conditions under which justice and respect for obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

TO PROMOTE social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

And For These Ends

TO PRACTICE tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and

TO UNITE our strength to maintain international peace and security, and

TO ENSURE, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and

TO EMPLOY international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

Have Resolved to Combine Our Efforts to Accomplish These Aims.

(The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, N.Y., 1967)

As is seen, all the reasons which led to the decision of setting up an international organization are expressed in one sentence with parallel infinitive object clauses. Each infinitive object clause is framed as a separate paragraph, with the infinitive being capitalized, thus enabling the reader to attach equal importance to each of the items mentioned. Gutt, E.-A. (1998). “Pragmatic aspects of translation: Some relevance-theory observations” in L. Hickey (ed.). Pragmatics of Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 41-53.

The separate sentences shaped as clauses are naturally divided not by full stops but either by commas or by semicolons. It is also an established custom to divide separate utterances by numbers, maintaining, however the principle of dependence of all statements on the main part of the utterance.

As is seen from the different samples above, the over-all code of the official style falls into a system of subcodes, each characterized by its own terminological nomenclature, its own compositional form, its own variety of syntactical arrangements. But the integrating features of all these subcodes emanating from the general aim of agreement between parties, remain the following:

1) conventionality of expression;

2) absence of any emotiveness;

3) the encoded character of language; symbols (including abbreviations);

4) a general syntactical mode of combining several utterances into one sentence.

1.2 The legal genre

The legal genre, which has a well-established status in LSP and sublanguage studies, includes a variety of texts and situational patterns. Within the legal genre there are `internal' functional sub-genres, such as statutes, conventions, contracts with their numerous sub-categories, wills, case reports, etc., which have received considerable attention both in theoretical and theoretical-translation studies in the recent years (e.g. Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 2004; 1993, Tiersma, 2000; Alcaraz & Hughes, 2002 on translation). The underlying notion is that genre refers to some pattered recurrent form or conventions, but definitions of genre vary among theoreticians. Swales (1990) emphasises the dynamicity inherent in genres, which can only be discussed as «fuzzy» and changeable. Bhatia (2004: 18 f.) on the other hand identifies genre as one of four

basic modes of discourse, where discourse can be analysed as 1) text, 2) genre, 3) professional practice, and 4) social practice, thus acknowledging a crucial role which information on genre plays in communication. The first two points enumerated by Bhatia introduce an interesting, although contentious, distinction between the notions of intertextuality and genre. In Bhatia's view «discourse as text» involves intertextuality, i.e. more technical characteristics, language form and structure, while «discourse as genre» concentrates on genre in the sense of functional properties, which, it seems, can be identified with pragmatic, purely contextual information. The categories are not clearcut, however, the `discourse as genre' concept may be most readily related to the notion of context in RT, which is commented on in further sections of the essay.

Communication within the legal domain is constrained by specific features associated with the English legal register. These genre characteristics also contribute to the difficulty in processing of LL on the part of uninitiated audiences and include the following: Witczak-Plisiecka, I. (2005). “English Legal Texts in Translation -the Relevance-Theoretic Approach” Relevance Studies in Poland, 169-181.

- specialised lexis, where words acquire meaning via definition or institutionalised use;

- Latin and archaic expressions, especially Norman French;

- doublets, triplets and deictic expressions;

- the use of directive shall;

- long sentences, complex prepositional and nominal phrases;

- peculiarities of style, e.g. open texture, self-referentiality, formality, verbosity;

- vagueness with concomitant lack of ambiguity.

The features enumerated above are part of context in a communicative situation involving text-person interaction in the legal domain.

1.3 Selected problems of LL description in the relevance-theoretic framework

The problems connected with describing LL as even vaguely self-contained entity adopting the relevance-theoretic approach are many and varied. The first is connected with the object of description. RT as a neo-Gricean theory focuses on conversation; it is based on the inferential model of communication and puts emphasis on the fact that linguistic meaning is inherently underdetermined and both explicatures and implicatures undergo disambiguation in context. Thus, in the legal domain RT should lend itself more readily to theorising about the language of the courtroom, situations of lawyer-client consultations, or minority groups' linguistic performance than texts.

However, RT has an ambitious task to be descriptive and explanatory of all communicative phenomena and should also offer a systematic account of legal communication mediated via texts and legal language as a sublanguage. An evident difficulty resulting from this broadening of the Gricean perspective is that discussion of texts is conducted via terminology and apparatus designed primarily to refer to conversation. The next problem related to the object of description is that all discussion of relevant phenomena can only be made a posteriori with reference to a particular situation, because relevance itself is dependent on the participants and context of this situation, thus hardly measurable a priori.

Another problem is posed by RT understanding of context, cf. the quotation below:

(1) context of an utterance… [is] a psychological construct, a subset of the hearer's assumptions about the world (…) the set of premises used in interpreting [the] utterance. A context in this sense is not limited to information about the immediate physical environment or the immediately preceding utterances: expectations about the future, scientific hypotheses or religious beliefs about the mental state of the speaker, may all play a role in interpretation. Witczak-Plisiecka, I. (2005). “English Legal Texts in Translation -the Relevance-Theoretic Approach” Relevance Studies in Poland, 169-181.

This broad definition invites questions such as whether `the legal context' is given or chosen, and whether it can be measured objectively. It seems that, allowing some simplification, the context can be understood as `given' and `chosen' only with reference to people who participate in legal transactions consciously or who are well acquainted with the system.

There is only one explicit comment on communication in the legal context present in `Relevance. Communication and Cognition' (S&W), made on page 19 with reference to the notion of mutual knowledge:

(2) In legal proceedings, for instance, there really is a serious attempt to establish mutual knowledge among all the parties concerned: all laws and precedents are made public, all legitimate evidence is recorded, and only legitimate evidence can be considered, so that there is indeed a restricted domain of mutual knowledge on which all parties may call, and within which they must remain.

It is claimed that in contrast to normal conversation there is no struggle for mutual knowledge in the legal domain, apparently due to its explicitness. However, the optimism encoded in the quotation does not guarantee that legal context invites higher levels of relevance as evidently LL is not universally more accessible even though it attempts to be more explicit. The fact that e.g. legal documents typically include numerous provisions, definitions and quotations may and often does contribute to the emergence of quite the opposite effect. It has also been acknowledged by Sperber and Wilson that expansion of the context can be identified with «an increase in processing effort [and] may lead to a general loss of relevance» (S&W: 136). Thus, multiplicity of information in legal documents may reduce relevance to the reader/the audience rather than enhance communication. Approached from the LL perspective this explanation coming from RT can be seen as one more motivation for the Plain Language Movement.

It is apparent that the RT context involves both the knowledge of the relevant code and inference. As acknowledged above the reception of a legal document may dramatically differ depending on the audience involved. RT claims that communicators choose stimuli which they found most appropriate, relevant and ostensive in a given context. The ostensive stimuli are characterised as follows:

(3) a) The ostensive stimulus is relevant enough for it to be worth the addressee's effort to process it. b) The ostensive stimulus is the most relevant one compatible with the communicator's abilities and preferences. Witczak-Plisiecka, I. (2005). “English Legal Texts in Translation -the Relevance-Theoretic Approach” Relevance Studies in Poland, 169-181.

Once again, although legal texts appear to be intentional and ostensive even more explicitly than average communication stimuli, the degree of ostensivity is not only context-dependent but primarily receiver, i.e. audience-dependent; it is a function of the audience expertise in LL and cannot be judged a priori.

A point worth mentioning here is that genre labels for document categories are informative and may provide clues concerning proper interpretation of the document in question. Genre categories function as ostensive stimuli and indicate author's/sender's cooperation with their intended/potential audience, instantly directing the addressee and audience's expectations, enhancing efficient use of inference and contributing to increasing the cognitive effect and lessening the processing effort.

Another important point is that the differences in fossilisation of form of particular legal genres may also be explained with reference to code vs. inference distinction and relevance. For example, wills have been reluctant to change despite containing numerous archaic formulae. This `reluctance' may result from there being a relatively high cognitive effect with limited processing effort involved in processing of their contents, which may further result from relative familiarity with the structure and language of wills, among their potential audiences. The same applies to specific archaic formulae, especially those present in the more fossilised fragments in other legal documents, e.g. the enacting formula in a British or a Canadian statute. The phrases are iterative and rank lower on the processing effort scale. Quite contrary, in genres which are more varied and involve a wide array of possible matters, e.g. contracts, there seems to be a need for simplification of their language of expression. The language of contracts have been more openly and more frequently criticised and subjected to the Plain Language Movement claims. This situation apparently results from there being a high level of processing effort on the part of the audience, whose expectations about the form and content of this type of document are less certain and defined, which further inhibits communication by lowering the cognitive effect gained.

Audiences also are only partially predictable in the case of LL documents. Although RT preferably refers to communicative situations which have already taken place, the authors do make provisions for potential situations, cf. (4) below:

(4) The addressees of an act of ostensive communication are the individuals whose cognitive environment the communicator is trying to modify. […] they may be falling under a certain description, as when we address the present paragraph to all individuals who have read the book so far and found it relevant to them. In broadcast communication, a stimulus can even be addressed to whoever finds it relevant. The communicator is then communicating her presumption of relevance to whoever is willing to entertain it. Witczak-Plisiecka, I. (2005). “English Legal Texts in Translation -the Relevance-Theoretic Approach” Relevance Studies in Poland, 169-181.

Typically the audience in the legal context is seen as a set of people potentially interested or affected by the legislation; both professionals and laymen and in most cases cannot be sufficiently characterised a priori.

The most central notion in RT, i.e. relevance is a binary value, which results from the interplay between processing effort involved and cognitive effects gained in a communicative act. RT claims that people have intuitions of relevance - «they can consistently distinguish relevant from irrelevant information» (S&W: 119). However, this claim can hardly be applied to LL at large, where the specific genre features contribute to its being found difficult by lay audiences while at the same time easy by specialists. It follows that communicative events should be judged with reference to particular participants.

RT also suggests that style is a result of the pursuit of optimal relevance. Thus, it should follow that the stylistics of the legal genre should lower the processing effort and raise the cognitive effect. This view could be supported by lawyers who claim that LL is a necessary functional variety and should not be simplified or changed towards everyday language. Thus, the explicit/implicit distinction has a specific value in LL because in LL there are crucial differences in perception of what is explicitly stated, i.e. encoded in the semantics rather than pragmatics of the expressions used, depending on the audience.

2. Semantic and pragmatic features of Legal language

2.1 Bases of the English Legal Language

official document legal language

It is impossible to fully appreciate the nature of legal language without having some familiarity with its history. There is no single answer to the question of how legal language came to be what it is. Charrow, V.R. (1982). “Language in the Bureaucracy” in R.J. di Pietro (ed.) Linguistics and the Professions. Proceedings of the Second Annual Delaware Symposium on Language Studies. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 173-188

Since much of the explanation can be found in the historical events which have left their mark on the language of English law, we should first take a glance at the historical background of today's British legal language.

Like their language, the law of the British Celts had little lasting impact on the English legal system. The Germanic invaders who spoke Anglo-Saxon or Old English developed a type of legal language, the remnants of which have survived until today, such as «bequeath,» «theft,» «guilt,» «land.» The Anglo-Saxons made extensive use of alliteration in their legal language, which survived in today's English legal language in expressions such as «aid and abet,» «any and all,» etc.

Even without alliteration, parallelism was an important stylistic feature of Anglo-Saxon legal documents, which has also survived. Even today witnesses swear to tell «the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth». The same.

A significant event for the language and law of England was the spread of Christianity in 597, since it promoted writing in Latin. Through the Roman Catholic Church the Latin language once again had a major presence in England. Its influence extended to legal matters, particularly by means of the Canon Law, through which the Church regulated religious matters such as marriage and family. The use of Latin as legal language introduced terms like «client,» «admit,» and «mediate».

After the Duke of Normandy claimed the English throne and invaded England in 1066, the main impact of this Norman conquest on the written legal language was to replace English with Latin (Tiersma 1999:20). Beginning in 1310, the language of statutes was French, but it was not until two hundred years after the Conquest that French became the language of oral pleadings in the royal courts. For the next one or two centuries French maintained its status as England's premier legal language. However, in 1417, while fighting the French, King Henry V broke all linguistic ties with his Norman ancestry and decided to have many of his official documents written in English. Charrow, V.R. (1982). “Language in the Bureaucracy” in R.J. di Pietro (ed.) Linguistics and the Professions. Proceedings of the Second Annual Delaware Symposium on Language Studies. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 173-188

Despite the emergence of French, Latin remained an important legal language in England, especially in its written form. The fact that writs were drafted in Latin for so long explains why even today, many of them have Latin names. The use of Latin and tireless repetitions by the judges have endowed these legal maxims with a sense of timelessness and dignity; moreover, they reflect an oral folk tradition in which legal rules are expressed as sayings due to the ease of remembering a certain rhythm or rhyme. The same.

These poetic features are still occasionally found in the English legal language. Latin has also remained in expressions relating to the names of cases and parties; for example, in England the term for the crown in criminal case names is «Rex or Regina». The same.

When Anglo-French died out as a living language, the French used by lawyers and judges became a language exclusive to the legal profession. The same. It was incomprehensible both to their clients and to the speakers of ordinary French. Legal French also contained many terms for which there were no English equivalents.

Several French terms are still common in legal English such as «accounts payable/receivable,» «attorney general,» «court martial.» The most lasting impact of French is the tremendous amount of technical vocabulary that derives from it, including many basic words in the English legal system, such as «agreement,» «arrest,» «estate,» «fee simple,» «bailiff,» «council,» «plaintiff,» and «plea.» As in the early Anglo-Saxon influence, which had phrases featuring the juxtaposition of two words with closely related meaning which are often alliterative such as «to have and to hold,» this doubling continued in legal French, often involving a native English word together with the equivalent French word, since many people at the time would have been partially bilingual and would understand at least one of the terms, for example, «acknowledge and confess,» «had and received,» «will and testament,» «fit and proper.»

As we see through the Middle ages, the legal profession made use of three different languages. During the rest of 17th century, Latin and legal French continued their slow decline.

In 1731, Parliament permanently ended the use of Latin and French in legal proceedings; however, it became difficult to translate many French and Latin terms into English. With another statute, it was provided that the traditional names of writs and technical words would continue to be in the original language (Tiersma 1999:36), and the ritualistic language remained important. The exact words of legal authorities mattered very much to the profession. Rewriting an authoritative text in your own words was considered to be dangerous and even subversive (Tiersma 1999:39). Tiersma mentioned that once established, legal phrases in authoritative texts take on a life of their own; you meddle with them at your own risk (1999:39). He adds that, in authoritative written texts, the words will remain the same even if the spoken language and indeed the surrounding circumstances have changed, and lawyers will use the same language even if the public no longer understands it. Once this happens, the professional class that is trained in the archaic language of the texts becomes indispensable. Charrow, V.R. (1982). “Language in the Bureaucracy” in R.J. di Pietro (ed.) Linguistics and the Professions. Proceedings of the Second Annual Delaware Symposium on Language Studies. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 173-188

All these developments throughout history have led to an obtuse, archaic and verbose legal language in English which is one of the main reasons of the difficulties encountered by Turkish translators in translating legal texts written in English.

2.2 Legal translation in international settings and the training of lawyer linguists

The legal meaning of a rule in its application to a particular factual situation is ascertainable by the process of reasoning known as deductive or syllogistic reasoning. Here the dialectic contained in legal documents of the ECJ and ECHR constitutes a highly ritualised form of communication in terms of formal procedure and linguistic use where the legal reasoning - either as a mental process through which a conclusion is made or a discourse through which a conclusion is justified - serves pragmatic functions of the law. Here the term reasoning is to be understood as meaning an expository legal discourse, or more precisely a sequence of clauses, whose information is logically oriented around a theme. Some of these clauses function as statements or conclusions, others as premises, arguments or reasons supporting them. In that sense, reference is usually made to the argumentative uses of language (in logicians' terminology) meaning those propositions that succeed or fail according to arguments, reasons, evidence, or the like. In other words, those propositions that are able to carry the listener/reader along with them only because they have a rational foundation. In opinion text type, this is found in the ECJ Advocate General (hereinafter the `jurist') expressing in his own language his views of the relevant law applied to the context of the case and delivered in open court; for example, the arguments as to legal basis, legal certainty, etc. A similar approach is found in judgments where the ECJ judges and ECHR President provide a description of the procedure, facts and relevant law leading the Court to unanimously deliver the relative judgment. In this framework, the language of such texts includes a bundle of syntactic, lexical, stylistic, argumentative and deductive patterns which, while reflecting ordinary language usage, become part of institutionalised, formal communication. Where opinions are concerned, these patterns amount to formal, oral-like type of texts, these being prepared in writing earlier before they are delivered in open court. In other words, opinions seem to be an example of a transition between written and oral discourse, in that they are written to then be listened to. Opinions appear to be relatively fragmented, based on a good amount of systematization, the language of which also appears to be both accurate and plain as well as standard in lexis.

They comply with syntactic rules by avoiding repetitions, lexical repetitions, hesitation, and broken off sentences. The jurist's legal argumentations, which proceed spontaneously in logic-programming style, are presented with the interplay between applicability statements and legal reasoning. The main formal textual features of opinions and judgments are found in the orality features, such as opening and closing phrases used in standard language: by application lodged *the EC Commission brought an action *the case originated in the application against *the Directive requires *the Court declares that *orders Ireland to pay the costs *the Court sets aside the order/annuls the decision *the Court unanimously holds that *the action should be dismissed *the interveners should bear their own costs.

These phrases are part of various argumentative strategies occurring in the body of such documents. These are found in the interplay of argumentative paragraphs made up of evidential propositions on a specific legal point and supported by a sequence of premises with the use of the conjunction whereas in the normative text as a preamble including different recitals:

Whereas biotechnology and genetic engineering are playing an increasingly important role in a broad range of industries…

Whereas, in particular in the field of genetic engineering, research and development require a considerable amount…

There also occur phrases, which strongly argue the reasons for appropriateness of Community harmonisation, such as:

I accordingly do not accept the argument that Community harmonisation is inappropriate and ineffective;

the occurrence of italicised subheadings:

Whereas biotechnology and genetic engineering are playing an increasingly important role in a broad range of industries…

Whereas, in particular in the field of genetic engineering, research and development require a considerable amount…

There also occur phrases, which strongly argue the reasons for appropriateness of Community harmonisation, such as:

I accordingly do not accept the argument that Community harmonisation is inappropriate and ineffective;

the occurrence of italicised subheadings:

The extent and the conditions of the derogation…

The arguments that obstacles to trade have not been shown

First, the Netherlands submits that, even if it is assumed that,…

phrases signalling the shifting to arguments that add or support the main conclusion in the preceding paragraph: Moreover I agree with the Parliament that…, or signalling a new argument As for the fact that…, With regard to the Netherlands' argument…and the occurrence of such legalese formal adverbs as thereby as in … the directive should thereby be annulled. Within the area of modal usage, there also occur semi-auxiliaries in the be-to frame (be liable to) and in be (is to); modal nouns and verbs (duty, necessary, require); modal verbs (shall, may, can) each conveying their own modal meaning, as well as modality exponents (to be under a duty, to be the duty of) as is the case of most national legislative text types. In addition, there occur words and phrases that can be classed as `hedges' or hedge-like. In Lakoff's study, hedges are defined as words whose meaning implicitly involves fuzziness, but fuzziness can be related to vagueness or variations of sense, which are constitutive characteristics of natural language. Examples of hedging devices in opinion text type are verbs with a modal meaning (consider, think, suggest); adverbs (just, obviously); downtoners (some, there is some evidence to suggest…); qualifiers (kind of, in this/that respect/regard); approximating expressions (It seems to me, In my view, That point is to my mind misconceived). Danet, B. (1980). “Language in the legal process” Law & Society Review 14, 3: 445-564.

Sweetser (1981:32) calls such expressions `evidentiality-hedges' because they indicate the evidential status of the statement being made. In my analysis, evidentiality expresses the speaker's justification for his assertion of the validity of a proposition as based on indirect or direct evidence (infererring or not) (Wallace Chafe, 1987:10). I believe this definition particularly fits legal argumentation made by the jurist, and I would group it together with epistemic modality and all other examples of modal expressions, these being given as a category expressing the speaker's judgment of the degree of assertability of the validity of his propositions regarding his knowledge of the explicit rule. These expedients, in performing a rhetorical function, allow the jurist to base his own discourse on what I have referred to as logic-programming style. In other words, in delivering his views, the jurist's task is to demonstrate both the material and formal validity of the rule arrived at by deductive reasoning and based on both premises and conclusions. By contrast, it should also be pointed out that such a reasoning does not focus on true-false kind of propositions as in normative texts. On these grounds, however, the functional criterion of legal discourse, while affecting the pragmatic dimension of language, is to detach from a wider, more general category of normative discourse, otherwise spoken of as prescriptive, preceptive, directive, practical or otherwise discourse. Here, the jurist's legal reasoning is conducted by way of inferring the content of implicit rules arising from the propositional content of explicit rules, and which make his conclusions either to be logically valid or invalid. In that sense, his reasoning does not amount to emotional type of discourse, rather it is deontological and tautological, originating from explicit rules. Therefore, by referring to modes of behaviour established in the Directive or Treaty as a category of explicit rules, the jurist is able to reach his conclusions at a lower level, that is, by sets of paragraphs arguing specific legal points through such concluding clause as: I accordingly …ineffective

Nor indeed … is misconceived, ineffective or unlawful.

I accordingly do not accept the argument that Community harmonisation is inappropriate and ineffective.

and at a higher, inclusive level through such other concluding clause as: It follows …in my opinion, fail: