Unit 2

Cristina Gonzlez Angs 2015/16

Special features of Legal English

Legal English has a set of unique characteristics which make it difficult to learn even for native speakers of the language. Alhtough it does
share some characteristics with other specialised languages, such as lexical repetition or noun compounds, it also shows certain features
that need getting familiar with.
In most cases those characteristics simply mean a difference in the frequency of occurrence of certain grammatical features of English.
In other cases there is a certain degree of departure from the typical features of general English.

1. Complex prepositional
phrases

A complex preposition phrase usually consist of

a preposition + (article) + noun + another preposition.
Examples: in the event of (if); by virtue of (by); for the reason that (because)
They are a sequence of two or more words or phrases belonging to the same grammatical category
having some semantic relationship and joined by some syntactic device such as and or or. Colloquially they

2. Binomial/multinomial
expressions

are called:

Couplets: advice and consent

Triplets: give, devise and bequeath
They usually combine a native English word with another term of French or Latin origin.
They are an adverbial word or place to which a preposition-like word has been suffixed. Most compound

3. Compound prepositions and

prepositions and adverbs could be replaced by more simple expressions, but these archaism are very

adverbs

frequent in legal English.

Examples: Herein (in this document); hereinbefore (in the preceding part of this document or text)

The register of legal English (degree of formality) is very high, probably one of the most formal in all
special languages.

It may be detected in features like archaisms, prepositional phrases, or compound adverbs:

It is also seen in the choice of lexical options typical of a higher register, such as "append" instead of
4. Formal register: formalism,
lexical density and euphemisms

"attach", "deem" instead of "consider", etc.

The degree of formality is also shown in the high frequency of subordinate clauses, the rigidity of
their structure and the unusal length of some sentences.
The conceptual difficulty is sometimes increased by fragments in which there is a great lexical density.
Another formal feature is the use of euphemisms, which make it possible to avoid making reference to
unpleasant facts or events: "a visitor to a Court of Inns" is actually someone in charge of starting
disciplinary proceedings against a lawyer.

Legal terminology is characterized by one-to-one correspondences between words and definitions, and it
is selfom the case that a word may be easily replaced by another.
5. Scarcity of synonyms.
Polysemy

Theft-robbery-burglary.
Annul abolish, overturn, override, set aside, quash, etc.
Polisemy may be a source of confusion, since there are words in legal English whose meaning may greatly
vary from one context to another: issue, provision, to sanction, order, defence, etc.
In legal English words are repeated in order to create cohesion between sentences. Particles like "it" or

6. Lexical repetition and

"this" trigger off a search of referents and this may cause ambiguity, which explains why lexical repetition

syntactic complexity

is the favoured mechanism of repetition, as well as other anaphoric legal expressions (the aforementioned,
the aforesaid, etc.).

Nominalization is the transformation of a whole sentence into a noun. By means of this process, texts
become very condensed because they compress a lot of information into relatively few words. Two types of
nominalization:
1. Addition of a derivational suffix to create a noun (by adding a suffix like -ism, -tion, -ure as in
proceed/procedure.
7. Nominalization and

2. zero-derivation (or conversion), as in to study/study

postmodification
Nominalization is usually suplemented by postmodification, which seeks to avoid potential ambiguity, even
if it is at the expense of syntactic obscurity.
This postmodification sometimes has an impact on the logical order of elements: "the payment of the
resnt to the owner" becomes "the payment to the owner of the rent" in order to emphasize the
recipient, and is often based on "-ing" forms.
In legal English connectives are scarcely used. Sentences to come one after the other without particles
8. Connectives

such as "meanwhile", "since", "moreover", furthermore", etc., which makes reading abrupt.
The only connectives widely used are those which are specifically legal: "notwithstanding, subject to,
provided, whilst, where, whereas, etc.
Legal English has very long and complex sentences, with multiple levels of subordination and embedding,

9. Long and complex sentences something very seldom found in general English, which generally shows a clear tendency towards
coordination.
It refers to the insertion of clauses that restrict the meaning of the main clause. It occurs if two
elements of the same phrase, which would normally be situated beside each other in the same structure,
10. Syntactic discontinuity

are formally separated by another expression or clause being inserted in between them.
As a result of this, the two elements, which are both semantically and structurally related, may end up
distanced from each other in the structure of the sentence and the close semantic or structural relation
between them may become less obvious.

11. Scarce or inadequate

In legal texts, style is generally not a priority, which means that the clarity of the contents takes

punctuation

precedence over the form of the text. Thus, attention is generally not paid to punctuation.

12. Abundance of passive

In legal texts passive structures are very frequent because in most cases the core of the message is the

structures.

action/fact itself or its result, not the agent of the action.

13. Whiz Deletion

This is the term used by Berk-Seligson (1990) to refer to the omission of the relative pronoun and the
corresponding verb as in "all the rights and remedies [which are] available to a secured party"
Legal texts tend to be impersonal, given the fact that what matters is not so much who writes the text

14. Impersonality

but what the text itself says.

Some mechanisms to enhance this tendency to impersonality are the use of passive structures and the use
of inanimate subjects or ergative structures.
Threre seems to be a certain reluctance to use the particle "not", which is reflected in

the alternative use of particles with negative meaning, such as never, unless, except, fail to, etc. Or
terms with a negative prefix such as:
15. Tendency to avoid the

un- unauthorised, undesirable

negative particle "not"

il- illegal
im- impossible
ir- irregular
in- incomplete
dis- discontinue, dissatisfied

16. Use of prepositions which

This is a typical feature of colloquial English which is also present in legal discourse. The difficulty arises

are separated from their

when the distance between the preposition and its complement is considerable, because the reference may

complements

then be lost. In addition, this usually happens with two or more prepositions at the same time.
Exceptions:

The use of subjunctive has practically

God save the Queen

disappeared from colloquial English, where it

God help you

used only in certain set phrases. It has been

God bless you

gradually replaced by other alternative options,

Heaven forbid

such as

It is essential that you are here on time.

putting the verb in the present or the past

I demanded that he apologised.

putting in "should"

What do you suggest we should do?

It is formed by: adjective/noun/verb + (that) +

It's essential that you be here on time.

subject + the infinitive (without to), and it is

I demanded that he apologize.

important to remember that the verb does not

17. The subjunctive

What do you suggest we do?

show concordance with the subject

After verbs such as ask, advise, command, demand, insist, order,

propose, recommend, request, require, suggest, urge.
We will recommend that he attend a forma hearing.
After adjectives such as important, essential, crucial, advisable,
The subjunctive is used in
English in the following cases:

urgent.
It is crucial that he be granted the opportunity to present his
positions to the court.
After nouns, in expressions like the following:
There is also the recommendation that the Council meet every week.

There is in English a conditional structure which is Had she known about it, she wouldn't have gone.
18. Conditional sentences with made with subject-operator inversion and elision
inversion and omission of "if"

Should you need more details, do not hesitate to

of the particle "if". It usually involves "had",

contact us.

"should" or "were".

Were I in your place, I would take the opportunity.

Having regard to

There is a clear tendency to use the present

19. Use of present participle

expressing

participle in legistlative texts, more specifically in

considering

the recitals of EU legal documents:

recognizing

Collective nouns are used extremely frequently: Commission, Committee, Council, etc. The same happens in
general English with noun such as hospital, police, family, company, staff, etc.
Collective nouns may be seen either as a single unit made up of people or as just a group of people. If
they are seen as a group, then the verb is in the singular;
if they are seen as a number of people, the verb is in the plural.
20. Use of collective nouns

In British English

In American English

These nouns can have a singular or a plural verb,

although there seems to be a marked tendency
towards the plural form.
With police, the singular in British english is

These nouns normally take a singular verb because they

tend not to be seen as a number o people but as a group.

rarely used.
21. Use of "to be + to +
verb"

In legal texts, it is rather frequent to find the structure "to be + to + verb" to express a future
obligation (or lack of it if it is in the negative), or to replace "must/have to".
There is to be no right of appeal against the rejection of the application.