MORPHO-SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF LEGAL LANGUAGE. SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY AND SYNTACTIC DISCONTINUITY IN LEGAL TRANSLATIONS

Abstract

Until recently, linguists have paid relatively little attention to professional jargons, possibly because they shared the common belief that the primary differences between professional jargons and ordinary usage were purely lexical. In the last few years, we have begun to recognize that professional sublanguages –
such as medical language, scientific language and legal language – in fact, have important distinctive features, beyond the lexical level. The most readily apparent differences may indeed be lexical, but there may also be syntactic and discourse features that are equally important. This is especially true in the case of legal language (Charrow et al 1982: 175). Studies undertaken of the structural properties of the register of legal English have labeled the style as “frozen” due to formulaic structures which seem old fashioned in
modern language use. Furthermore, the legal register is characterized by long sentences and by an impersonal style with many formulaic expressions and typical legal vocabulary.