The Language of Legal Documents

The language of legal documents
The content
 Characteristics of legal English
 Early legal documents form and characteristics
 Grammatical characteristics
 Vocabulary
 Conclusions
 There are involved different activities, statutes, contracts,
agreements
 The legal document says exactly what the author wants to
say.
 There are no opportunities for misinterpretation, very clear.
 The least communicative, only the direct meaning
 Very formal language
 Very precise terms
 Very difficult to be understood
Legal English
 Legal language is not spontaneous, it is very well thought of.
 Characterized by linguistic formula or collections of such
formula
 Form books - books with established formula used in the
legal documents
 The language far removed from informal spontaneous
conversation
 The complexities of legal English are unlike normal discourse,
it is not easy to be understood even by experts.

 The language largely unspeakable at first sight.
 Extreme linguistic conservatism, not accepting changes.
 The principle: What has been tested and found adequate is
best not altered.

 Gives way to both French and Latin.
Early legal documents
 In the form of a solid block
 No patterns of spacing or indentation to indicate either the
sections of the document or the relations between them

 Unbroken format
 Extremely difficult for a layman
 The sentences were long: an entire document in the form of a
single sentence
 The punctuation almost completely absent
 When legal documents came to be printed, the idea was the same
 Legal English should have visual coherence interrupted as little as
possible.
 Even actually:
• documents without paragraph division
• long, thinly punctuated sentences are the rule rather than the
exception
 Visual arrangement attempting to reflect the logical progression of
ideas was adopted along with appropriate lettering and numbering

of sections and subsections.
 Clear logical sequence is essential
 Blocks of print – to arrange the sections the content is organized, the
relationship between them and their relative importance
 The use of Gothic characters and the capitals for the words and phrases
 Graphetic and graphological means to point more effectively the meaning
of the whole document
 The use of numbers to identify the sections
 Initial capitalization to increase the importance, to dignify certain lexical
items
 Nowadays, usefulness of punctuation as a guide to grammatical structure
 Only a limited number of punctuation marks: final periods, colon
Grammar
 Documents have many sentences.
 Document with only one long sentence, sentence connectors
can be considered only for that part they play in joining

together clauses.
 Sentences tend to be extremely long.
 There are complex sentences capable of standing alone, being
self-contained units.
 Legal sentences are, almost without exception, complex.
 Personal pronouns he, she, it, they are rarely used.
 Personal pronoun I is not used.
 The verb do substitute is scarcely used in order to avoid ambiguity.
 Repetitiveness to avoid ambiguity and confusion
 Omission of “it” generally, only in constructions like “It is agreed as
follows”.
 Complete major sentences are present.
 Minor sentences are lacking.
 Most of the sentences in the form of the sentences
 No questions
 Only some occasional commands
 The frequency of adverbial element is high.
 Adverbials tend to be at the beginning of the sentence, but
not confined only to that.

 Finite and non finite clauses are likely to contain adverbials.
 Adverbials are put in a positions which seem unusual by more
normal standards.
 The adverbial elements are very often coordinated.
 Coordination at all levels and all kinds of structures is very
common.
 Written legal English – highly nominal
 Nominal group structures are many
 Verbal groups are relatively few
 Post modification in the nominal group
 The use of non-finite clauses
 Adjectives: splendid, wise, disgusting, happy are less frequent,
not allowed to express emotions
 Intensifying adverbs: very, rather are completely absent
 The construction: modal auxiliary (usu. shall) + be + past
participle
Vocabulary
 The range of vocabulary is wide
 “Terms of art” – those words and phrases about whose
meaning lawyers have decided there can be no argument:

alibi, bail, defendant, plaintiff, appeal, liable, etc. They mean
the same thing to all lawyers.
 There is no consolidated list of such terms, they are in
legislation, judgments, etc.

 Archaic words and phrases used only by lawyers, they add to the
formality of the language
 An adverbial word or phrase: hereto, hereon, hereunder, thereof
 Synonyms are coordinated usually in pairs: able and willing,
terms and conditions, made and signed

 Loan words
 French element extremely large: proposal, effect, society, duly,
signed, agreeing, etc.

 A large number of terms coming directly from Latin: basis, table,
declaration, registered, etc.

Conclusions
 Formal language
 Precise language
 Extreme conservatism
 However, legal language has changed, even if slowly. Changes
in the fashion of drafting documents. Changes in the law itself

 Loan words
 Nowadays the language in legal documents is considerably
simpler.

The Language of Legal Documents

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The Language of Legal Documents

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The language of legal documents

it is not easy to be understood even by experts.

best not altered.

sections of the document or the relations between them

• documents without paragraph division

ideas was adopted along with appropriate lettering and numbering

can be considered only for that part they play in joining

not confined only to that.

meaning lawyers have decided there can be no argument:

legislation, judgments, etc.

terms and conditions, made and signed

signed, agreeing, etc.

declaration, registered, etc.

in the fashion of drafting documents. Changes in the law itself

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