Referat Limbajul Administrativ Lb. Engleza

UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITEȘTI
FACULTATEA DE ȘTIINȚE ECONOMICE ȘI DREPT

LICENȚĂ SOCIOLOGIE
REFERAT LIMBA
ENGLEZĂ
-Limbajul Administrativ-
Student: Aldoiu Alina Georgiana
PITEȘTI
2021
Legal Language in Administration
1. Language is a highly complex phenomenon, and by its nature is a psychological

process par excellence, as one of the key manifestations of the psychic life of man. Therefore,
without language cannot be conceived neither the human existence as a social being, nor the
existence of society itself. Specialized languages or terminologies are diverse, individual, and
relatively independent. In the case of legal language, a very close connection between it and
the common language is set at the level of words that have one or more common meanings
common sand a specialized meaning: is the case of polysemantic words, in general, created
either by developing a legal sense, besides the meaning or meanings of common language
(fingerprint, incident) or by semantic extension of certain legal terms par excellence (crime,
pleading)
The field of law and its legal language, permanently influence the lives of the members
of our society. Legal language is thought to be complex, pompous, laborious, sinuous, archaic,
and exaggerative syntax constructions. Due to its complexity, a great number of people do not
fully understand important documents (their rights and obligations granted by a constitution),
decisions expressed by a court or by a tribunal, the regulations embodied in a statue, or the
legal terms specified in a contract. We should take into consideration a very important aspect
- the translation of legal language. In this paper, we will deal with the translation of legal texts,
which is not simply a matter of linguistic transference, but an attempt to communicate someone
else’s message through another language. We will show how the translator has to focus on a
complex network of factors, in order to perform an accurate translation, such as the context of
situation, the intended use of the translation, the communicative purpose, the generic
knowledge, the rhetorical context. Translators must have basic knowledge of the legal cultures
and systems of the source and target languages, and they must be aware of the differences of
these cultures and even of the absence of equivalent concepts.
2. General Features of Legal English (also casually referred to as

legalese or lawspeak):
Even most advanced students of English may have difficulties when it comes to
translating/interpreting legal documents, as they often prove to be very dense and obscure. It
is true that legal texts should be made understandable to everybody but, as the system of law
inherited by the English-speaking countries – the common law – is based on tradition, and,
until not very long time ago it was never written down but passed down in actual practice, it
contains a number of unusual features largely related to terminology, linguistic conventions or
technical conventions.
The interpreter/translator should therefore pay extreme care when using certain words
that have a particular meaning in plain, everyday English and quite another one in legal English.
Note furthermore that the number of so-called “false friends” increases as legal terminology is
used. An English translation from the Romanian “a respecta”, which is “to respect” in English
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may be the right choice in translating “respect toţi profesorii mei/I respect all of my teachers”
but may be indicative of a poor legal background when translating “cumpărătorul nu respectă
clauzele contractului”, which should be translated by “the buyer fails to observe/comply with
the contractual provisions”. Similarly “the buyer is obligated to” for the Romanian
“cumpărătorul este obligat să” may be acceptable but the preferred versions would be “the
buyer is bound to” or the active form “the buyer binds to/undertakes to”. Among the most
important characteristics of legalese are the following: - the presence of Latin words and
phrases.
As Alcaraz pointed out in his bookvii, it was inevitable for English lawto escape the
influence of Latin which was supported by the power of the Roman Church over Europe on
one hand and which was widely used on earth as a language of learning and literature, on the
other hand. A comprehensive list of Latinisms can be found on the internet, but here are some
commonly used Latin words and phrases: de facto, bona fide, actus reus, prima facie, etc. - the
use of archaisms, which give a flavor of formality to the legal documentviii. Most
contemporary authors still prefer old forms such as “fortwith” as a substitution for “right
away”, “to inquire” rather than “to ask” or the “eth” ending for the third person singular of the
present tense as an alternative for the modern “es”: (“witnesseth” instead of “witnesses”).
Beside formality, the conservative use of these rather old terms conveys both safety
and convenience. With repeated use, some of these terms have acquired in time an authoritative
interpretation and therefore altering them may come with a risk. It’s the principle described by
Crystal and Davy in 1986: “what has been tested and found adequate is best not altered”ix. -
an expressive redundancy which can be best seen in pairs of words used by lawyers to avoid
ambiguity. Most of the times these words come from different languages and in time they
became a sort of linguistic habit (Some authors believe that this is merely a tradition when
drafting legal documents. x). Such linguistic doublets are: “will and testament”, “lands and
tenements”, “have and hold”, “represents and warrants”, “null and void”, “any and all”, “by
and between” etc. There is also a lexical repetition with respect to the subject, as lawyers avoid
the use ofreferential pronouns because legal English is highly concerned with the exactness of
reference.
Compare for instance: “The Buyer shall pay for the goods to the Supplier at his office”
which creates confusion and ambiguity with the more redundant, but more accurate “The Buyer
shall pay for the goods to the Supplier at the office of the Supplier”. - the archaic use of modal
“shall” in legal English. In legal text draftsmen usually prefer the modal “shall” because it
carries out an obligation or a duty as opposed to its common function of expressing futurity.
Compare “Supplier will deliver the goods” (at a certain point in time, expressing a
future action) and “Supplier shall deliver the goods” (expressing an obligation to deliver and
not a mere reference to a future action). - the presence of a mixture of deictic elements (“here”,
“there” and “where”) with certain prepositions “of”, “under”, “by”, “after”, etc.
By way of illustration: hereinafter, hereunder, thereto, thereafter, used as a way of
avoiding repetition of names or things in the document: “annexed hereto” is shorter than
“annexed to this contract”. - the use of phrasal verbs plays a significantly larger role in legal
English than in plain English as these are often used in a quasi-technical sense: the parties enter
into contracts, write off debts, draw up documents, set off claims, set forth provisions, etc. use
of ordinary words in apparently peculiar contexts: construction of a contract refers to the
2
interpretation of acontract, the familiar term consideration refers to “a promise by one party to
a contract that constitutes the price for which the promise of the other party is bought” (a
definition from the Oxford Dictionary of Law) while title as a legal term refers to a bundle of
rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or an equitable
interest. - the use of technical words. Just like any other field, legal English has its own specific
vocabulary made up of purely technical terms. Some of these terms are only applicable in the
legal sphere and nowhere else: mortgage, lease, waiver, promissory estoppel, decree, while
others have developed a particular meaning in a legal context (see consideration or title above).
-/-
3
BIBLIOGRAFIE
Bowers, Fred Judicial Systemics: Function and Structure in Statutory Interpretation, paper
given at 9th International Systemic Workshop – Toronto: Winters College, York University.
1982
Alexandru, Ioan, Introducere în teoria administraţiei publice, Bucureşti, Editura Sylvi, 1997
Coteanu, Ion, Stilistica funcţională a limbii române. Stil, stilistică, limbaj, Bucureşti, Editura
Academiei, 1973
Dimiu, Radu, Stilul judiciar, Bucureşti, Vremea, 1939
Ghimpu, Sanda, Dialog despre lege, Craiova, Scrisul Românesc, 1978
Graur, Al., Lingvistica juridică, „România literară”, XIV, 1981, 36, pag. 9 Iorgovan, A.,
Drept administrativ. Tratat elementar, vol. I, Bucureşti, Editura All Beck, 2002
Negulescu, Paul, Tratat de drept administrativ, vol. I, Principii generale, Ediţia a IV-a,
Bucureşti, Institutul de Arte Grafice „E Mârvan”, 1934
Saramandu, Manuela, Terminologia juridic-administrativă românească în perioada 1780-
1850, Bucureşti, TUB, 1986
Stoichiţoiu, Adriana, Relaţii text-discurs în limbajul juridic-administrativ, în AUBLLR, XXX,
1981, pag. 99-105

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UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITEȘTI

FACULTATEA DE ȘTIINȚE ECONOMICE ȘI DREPT

Student: Aldoiu Alina Georgiana

1. Language is a highly complex phenomenon, and by its nature is a psychological

2. General Features of Legal English (also casually referred to as

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