Discourse in Computational Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence
INTRODUCTION. Suggested topics Legal languages Legal terminology Legal translation Characteristics...
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Transcript of INTRODUCTION. Suggested topics Legal languages Legal terminology Legal translation Characteristics...
INTRODUCTION
Suggested topicsLegal languagesLegal terminologyLegal translationCharacteristics of legal discourseLegal linguistics and the search for clarityLanguage in the courtroomForensic linguisticsLanguage legislationLinguistic human rightsLanguage policy and planning: official languages,
minority languages
PreviewLanguages for specific purposes v. ordinary
languageLegal language v. other LSPs: history, target
audienceGenres of legal languageCharacteristics of legal languagesBeginnings of interest in legal languageRise of legal linguisticsRelevance of legal linguistics for linguistics and lawRelated branches of law/linguisticsPractical application
The Concept of Legal LanguageA functional variant of natural language, with
its own domain of use and particular linguistic norms (phraseology, vocabulary, hierarchy of terms and meanings)
Legal language as language for specific purposes (LSP)Legal language – based on ordinary languageLegal terms whose properties vary according
to the branches of lawCharacteristics that distinguish legal
language from ordinary written language (e.g. sentence structure)
Specific legal style
Legal language as a “technolect”A language used by a specialist profesion (lawyers)In the courts and in the government –
professionals who are not lawyers (jury members, lay judges, administrators)
Ordinary citizens (will)Target of messages transmitted in legal language:
whole population, certain layers of the population, or a number of particular citizens
Law requires compliance of all people; court judgment relates to the parties involved in the case
Legal language – not an instrument aimed solely at internal communication within the legal profession
Legal languageGoverns all areas of social lifeThrough intertextuality, can be combined
with language from any domainVery old, which is not the case with other
LSPsIt has shaped the ordinary language of
various countries in a significant way
Legal languageThe population may use another language
than that forming the basis of the legal language
Middle Ages: LatinToday: legal language of African countries –
English or French; local languages spoken in everyday communication
In Finland: legal language until 19th c. - Swedish
Genres of legal language
Genres of legal language: spoken/writtenLanguage of lawyers: legal authors,
legislators, judges, administrators, advocatesPrivate documents : contracts, willsInternational agreements
LegaleseStyle of legal language: a spectrum that extends
from the solemn cast of the Constitution to everyday legal texts
All professions develop their own jargon, which strenghtens internal relationships and coherence of the group
Part of legal jargon – common to all sub-groups of lawyers
Some expressions - only used by a single sub-group of lawyers, or even within a particular court or department (ministry, supreme court)
Counter-language of the Criminal Fraternity
The language of offenders – a counter-language of legal language, notably criminal law
The heart of this: prison slangFunctions: strenghtens relationships of groups
of prisoners in relation to prison officers and the justice system; a secret code, rapidly changing and largely unknown to prison officers; frequency of synonyms (in Finnish prison slang:70 expressions to describe a police officer, 30 to describe imprisonment)
Beginnings of interest in legal languageLaw – bound to languageIn some contexts, linguistic aspect of law
dominates:legal translation, legal lexicography, legal rhetoric, judicial interpretation
Legal translation: history1st legal translated text that has survived:
the peace treaty between the Egyptians and the Hittites dating from 1271 BC, followed by innumerable translations
Corpus iuris civilis – first translated into Greek, than into many other languages
In medieval times, legal translation focused on Latin: texts were translated from different vernaculars into Latin and from Latin into various vernaculars
Legal lexicography: historyRoman law: creating a conceptual system which
requires clarifying connections between legal concepts
Defining terms expressing conceptsThis has led to compiling legal lexicons1st legal lexicon: Gaius Aelius Gallus, De
verborum quae ad jus pertinent significatione (‘On the meaning of words referring to the law’), 1st c. BC
Tradition of legal lexicography: carried on in Byzantium and in Western Europe
Legal lexicographyIn Western Europe – medieval legal
dictionaries first published in Latin, later in new national languages
1st bilingual lexicons of legal language – compiled in Byzantium (Latin-Greek lexicons)
Lexicons- partly encyclopaedic dictionaries, partly dictionaries of definitions
Legal lexicographyLater, an analogous need arose in Western
Europe as to links between Latin and new national languages
When Latin was replaced by modern languages, the need arose to compile legal dictionaries between various European national languages
RhetoricIn Ancient Greece, r. was closely connected
with activities of advocates before the courts1st treatise on rhetoric – written by Corax of
Syracuse in 5th c. B.C.; its focus: legal rhetoric
In the Middle Ages, rhetoric was one of the three subjects of the teaching trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric); an important place in the training of European lawyers
Legal linguistics todayModern linguistics developed at the
beginning of 20th c.Enormous progress of science and
technology in 20th c. gave birth to study LSP (Fachsprachen, lengues de spécialité both comparatively and in relation to ordinary language
Legal linguisticsLinguistique juridique, jurilinguistiqueRechtslinguistik (Recht und Sprache)Juryslingwistika (Polish)Pravovaia lingvistika (Russian)
Legal linguisticsResearch: synchronic (contemporary
language) or diachronic (historical)Canada: contrastive analysis of two legal
languages (English and French); closely bound up with the science of translation; this type of legal linguistics has spread to other countries, such as Poland
Legal linguisticsIn all schools undertaking research into legal
language, lawyers and linguists are to be foundResearchers: often dual training, or a study is
carried out in close cooperation between lawyers and linguists
Today researchers with linguistic training often use quantitative methods with the aid of computers; a typical research subject: occurrences of terms, or other linguistic elements (e.g. prefixes, suffixes) in legal texts
Legal linguisticsResearch topic: understandability and
readability of legal texts from the stand-point of non-lawyers
Legal linguisticsExamines the development, characteristics
and usage of legal languageStudies may concern vocabulary
(terminology), syntax (sentence structure), or semantics (meanings)
A synthesis between legal science and linguistics, notably applied linguistics
Also based on sociolinguistics
Legal linguisticsClosely connected to semanticsLexicology – a central position; it is through
terminology that legal language differs from ordinary language
Legal lexicography – compiling legal lexicons and dictionaries
Syntax: sentence length, frequency of subordinate clauses
Legal linguisticsMorphology: the construction of compound words
from the standpoint of their clarity Forensic linguistics - examines production and
perception of utterances from the legal standpoint, notably in courts: phonetic analysis of human voice (threatening phone calls), verifying the authenticity of documents
Research into legal style (application in rhetoric): how advocates convince judges of the worth of their messages
Legal linguisticsHistorical studies: how vocabulary has
changed over time; the countries and epochs of origin of borrowed legal words; how is legal language used in various legal sub-cultures (researchers, judges, advocates); to what extent is legal terminology known by the general public; how and when lawyers began to use modern languages instead of Latin and what is the current importance of Latin in today’s legal languages
Legal semiotics and legal symbolism
Spoken language is only one means of communication; animals transmit messages without language
Human beings also communicate in different ways
Semiotics examines all kinds of communication together
Legal semioticsResearch into the symbols of power and
judicial ritualsMessages that are not verbal, but express the
authority and prestige of judicial bodies: solemnity of court-houses, judges’ dress, positioning of judges and parties in the courtroom, rituals of legal procedure – wordless messages
Legal semioticsClosely related to legal linguistics: the tone of
the judge, the prosecutor, and the advocate, rhetorical pauses in their speech, the requirement that the public maintain absolute silence
Written presentations: the material, colour, decoration of documents
Legal semioticsLegal circles employ non-verbal signals that
transmit legal messagesHow effective is legal communication by non-
verbal means?E.g. drawings or charts annexed to a contract or
a lawBody language (e.g. traffic police hand signals),
visual signs (road signs, landmarks), sound signals (river traffic communications)
Symbols expressing authority: heraldry, flags, medals
Related disciplines: Legal informaticsExamines and teaches various forms of relationship
between the law and information and between law and informatics, as well as related problems of legal regulation and interpretation
Legal style, structure of laws, intertextual referencesSystematisation of legal textsStructure of legal texts, use of notes and appendices,
methods of emphasizing passages in the text and of showing links between different parts of the text (chapter and paragraph numbering, bold or italic script for headings and key words
Related disciplines: legal scienceSystematizes the legal order through legal
conceptsPrimary interest – conceptsLegal linguistics – terms are the primary
object of researchLegal science – meaning of legal terms
Links with other legal studiesLegal theory, legal informatics, legal sociology,
history of law – fundamwental importance from the standpoint of legal linguistics
In the development of legal language, history of language and history of law are fused; impossible to understand the circumstances in which legal language is used without knowing sociological dana
Comparative law - helps legal linguist to understand the interactive links between various languages used for legal purposes
Legal interpretationSemantic and syntactic arguments –
important partLinguistic methods, notably those of textual
linguistics, useful to legal scholars and practical lawyers in the task of interpreting
Legal linguisticsUses statistical methods that complete the
picture of legal language and of law obtained through other sources
Regularities in usage of legal language – of great interest from the theory and sociology of law
Foreign influences on national legal science can be brought into the open (citations in foreign languages – identifyinfg which foreign cultures have influenced national legal thinking, and, indirectly, the legal system of a country)
Comparative lawResearch in legal linguistics often focuses on
a single legal language; some major studies examine the development, structure and vocabulary of two or more languages; interaction of languages (how words pass from one legal language to another
Comparative law: methods for comparing legal cultures ; conclusions on the basis of differences and similarities found; the division of legal systems into major families and sub-families of law
Comparative lawSheds light on factors that influence the
development of the systems of concepts in the background of legal terms; better understanding of legal terminology
Legal translation and lexicography presuppose that the correspondence of concepts belonging to the legal systems in question would have been carefully analyzed; knowledge is required of the various institutes in these systems, notably of institutes of procedural law – the core of comparative law
Language policy1) Legal effects and rules on the use of
language2) the right of an individual or a group to be
taught in their own language, and of the public use of that language
Language policySome states aim to stifle use of languages other than
the one that dominates as the language of instruction and public life; the right of individuals or groups to use their own language – matter of regulation under public international law
The language regime of the EUSafeguarding the purity of the national language
under pressure of another languageThe right of citizens to require courts and authorities
to use a language that they clearly understandThe right to clear, comprehensible language
Linguistic riskWho bears the risk that a party to a contract
may misunderstand the content of the contract for linguistic reasons?
The rule in contract law according to which standard clauses vaguely formulated are interpreted to the disadvantage of their author (in dubio contra stipulatorem); in the case of standard contracts – the specialist who drew them bears the risk
Linguistic riskCases with international features, esp. those
involving immigrants – problems: contract is clear, but one party does not understand it
Allocation of linguistic risk – a topic of lively discussion in Germany in the case of employment contracts of immigrant workers
Importance of legal-linguistic knowledge: linguisticsLimits of variation of natural languages and
languages for special purposesPrinciples of language changeWays in which the language of judges and
officials influences the development of ordinary language
Application of legal linguisticsPractical lawyeringTranslationLexicography Terminology
Practical lawyeringLegal language – lawyer’s basic toolStudies of characteristics of legal language
can reveal shortcomings; improvementsComplex documents poorly drafted often
allow several interpretaionsIt is not enough for lawyers to be familiar
only with their language – knowledge of foreign languages for special purposes necessary for international cooperation
TranslationEurope increasingly needs translations of legal
textsEU translators use automated translation tools
and computer-aided methods of human translation
Automated translation and use of terminological databanks presuppose human control
Human control of automated translation – based on the culture and general knowledge of the translator; information on characteristics of legal language
Lexicography and terminological workLegal linguists study legal vocabulary and its
characteristics and pave the way for the practical work of compiling dictionaries and lexicons
Standpoint of terminologists – opposite to that of lexicographers: the point of departure for terminological work – concept, that for lexicographical work – term
Terminological study – based on careful analysis of systems of concepts; glossaries resulting from such studies- highly accurate
Lexicography and terminological workLegal terms – often multiple meanings
(polysemy); terminological studies – essential support for traditional lexicography: analysing terms corresponding to the systems of concepts – focus of interest; basis of legal dictionaries, completed by studies as to meanings appearing in the actual use of legal terms