Tradition and Change in Legal English

Tradition and Change in Legal English PDF Author: Christopher Williams
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039114443
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
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.

Tradition and Change in Legal English

Tradition and Change in Legal English PDF Author: Christopher Williams
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039114443
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Tradition and Change in Australian Law

Tradition and Change in Australian Law PDF Author: Patrick Parkinson
Publisher: Lawbook Company
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This book examines the tradition of law in Australia & the tension between adherence to tradition & the demands of change & renewal for the legal system. The author argues that the greatest challenge the legal system faces is the challenge of inclusion -- to make the legal system one to which all Australians have access & in which all Australians are able to make their voices heard. The new edition takes account of recently published work in Australian legal history, including the Wik case & the native title debate, the debate about a Republic, changes in the Australian court system, developments in legal reasoning & statutory interpretation, & the problems of access to justice.

The Impact of Plain Language on Legal English in the United Kingdom

The Impact of Plain Language on Legal English in the United Kingdom PDF Author: Christopher Williams
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000620484
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
This volume offers insights into the ways in which plain language has influenced the language of the law in the United Kingdom, critically reflecting on its historical development and future directions. The book opens with an overview of the theoretical frameworks underpinning plain language and a brief history of plain language initiatives as a foundation from which to outline ongoing debates on the opportunities and challenges of using plain language in the legal domain. The volume details strands where plain language has had considerable impact thus far on legal English in the UK, notably in legislative drafting, but it also explores areas in which plain language has made fewer inroads, such as the language of court judgments and that of online terms and conditions. The book looks ahead to unpack highly topical areas within the plain language debate, including the question of design and visualisation and the ramifications of digitalisation, contributing to ongoing conversations on the importance of plain language both in the UK and beyond. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars interested in the intersection of language and the law as well as related disciplinary areas such as applied linguistics and English for Specific Purposes.

Corpus-based Research on Variation in English Legal Discourse

Corpus-based Research on Variation in English Legal Discourse PDF Author: Teresa Fanego
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027262837
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the research carried out over the past thirty years in the vast field of legal discourse. The focus is on how such research has been influenced and shaped by developments in corpus linguistics and register analysis, and by the emergence from the mid 1990s of historical pragmatics as a branch of pragmatics concerned with the scrutiny of historical texts in their context of writing. The five chapters in Part I (together with the introductory chapter) offer a wide spectrum of the latest approaches to the synchronic analysis of cross-genre and cross-linguistic variation in legal discourse. Part II addresses diachronic variation, illustrating how a diversity of methods, such as multi-dimensional analysis, move analysis, collocation analysis, and Darwinian models of language evolution can uncover new understandings of diachronic linguistic phenomena.

The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes

The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes PDF Author: Brian Paltridge
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118941551
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 592

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Book Description
Featuring a collection of newly commissioned essays, edited by two leading scholars, this Handbook surveys the key research findings in the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). • Provides a state-of-the-art overview of the origins and evolution, current research, and future directions in ESP • Features newly-commissioned contributions from a global team of leading scholars • Explores the history of ESP and current areas of research, including speaking, reading, writing, technology, and business, legal, and medical English • Considers perspectives on ESP research such as genre, intercultural rhetoric, multimodality, English as a lingua franca and ethnography

Handbook of Communication in the Legal Sphere

Handbook of Communication in the Legal Sphere PDF Author: Jacqueline Visconti
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1614514666
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
This volume explores communication and its implications on interpretation, vagueness, multilingualism, and multiculturalism. It investigates cross-cultural perspectives with original methods, models, and arguments emphasizing national, EU, and international perspectives. Both traditional fields of investigations along with an emerging new field (Legal Visual Studies) are discussed. Communication addresses the necessity of an ongoing interaction between jurilinguists and legal professionals. This interaction requires persuasive, convincing, and acceptable reasons in justifying transparency, visual analyses, and dialogue with the relevant audience. The book is divided into five complementary sections: Professional Legal Communication; Legal Language in a Multilingual and Multicultural Context; Legal Communication in the Courtroom; Laws on Language and Language Rights; and Visualizing Legal Communication. The book shows the diversity in the understanding and practicing of legal communication and paves the way to an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural operation in our common understanding of legal communication. This book is suitable for advanced students in Linguistics and Law, and for academics and researchers working in the field of Language and Law and jurilinguists.

Comparative Law and Legal Traditions

Comparative Law and Legal Traditions PDF Author: George Mousourakis
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030282813
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
The primary aim of this book is to provide clear and reliable information on a number of central topics in comparative law. At a time when global society is increasingly mobile and legal life is internationalized, the role of comparative law is gaining importance. While the growing interest in this field may well be attributed to the dramatic increase in international legal transactions, this empirical parameter is only part of the explanation. The other part, and (at least) equally important, has to do with the expectation of gaining a deeper understanding of law as a social phenomenon and a fresh insight into the current state and future direction of one’s own legal system. In response to the internationalization of legal practice and theory, law schools around the world have expanded their comparative law programs. Within the legal subjects that form the core of the curriculum there is a greater interest in comparative legal analysis, as well as greater attention to how global developments and international actors and institutions affect domestic law. Transnational legal education based on comparative reasoning is intended to help shape a new generation of lawyers, public servants and other professionals who recognize and respect cultural diversity in an interconnected world. The central topics discussed in this book include: the nature and scope of comparative legal inquiries; the relationship of comparative law to other fields of legal study; the aims and uses of comparative law; the origins and historical development of comparative law; and the evolution and defining features of some of the world’s predominant legal traditions. It also deals with selected theoretical aspects, such as the problem of comparability of legal events; the classification of legal systems into families of law; and the topics of legal transplants, harmonization and convergence of laws. Chiefly intended for students, the book also discusses a number of fundamental issues concerning the development of comparative law, and devotes certain sections to reviewing the salient features of the relevant literature on definitional, terminological, methodological and historical issues.

Investigating English Legal Genres in Academic and Professional Contexts

Investigating English Legal Genres in Academic and Professional Contexts PDF Author: Girolamo Tessuto
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443845396
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This volume contributes to the latest studies in legal discourse studies by presenting a descriptive and interpretive analysis of English legal genres used in academic and professional writing contexts. The results of corpora-driven data are discussed through (meta)discourse, genre and other theoretical perspectives, and offer insights into the ways the writers' discursive practices and meanings shape their membership of the legal community and discipline. The volume attempts to show these id ...

Plain English for Lawyers

Plain English for Lawyers PDF Author: Richard C. Wydick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description


Unlocking the History of English

Unlocking the History of English PDF Author: Luisella Caon
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027246998
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
This volume brings together contributions selected from papers delivered at the 21st International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL, Leiden 2021). The chapters deal with aspects of language use throughout the history of English, including efforts to prescribe and regulate language in texts that share specific forms, functions and audiences. They feature both quantitative and qualitative analyses of changing language use, often in relation to trends of language advice in such metalinguistic works as grammars, spelling books and usage guides. The authors showcase work on pragmatics and prescriptivism (understatement between Middle and Late Modern English, capitalization of common nouns from Early to Late Modern English and the use of stigmatized grammatical variants in eighteenth-century plays), specific text types (case studies of political, legal and medical English) and the language of late modern letters (diachronic stylistic changes, letter-copying practices, the role of letter-writing manuals and changing spelling practices). This volume will be of interest to those working on pragmatics, prescriptivism and sociolinguistics of English, historical linguistics, language change, computational historical linguistics and related sub-disciplines.