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摘 要 法律英语是英语的一个特殊语域，具有区别于文学语言和其他实用文体的显著特点。作为英语的功能变体，法律英语的文体特点取决于法律的特殊社会功能。法律在社会活动中的特殊作用要求法律英语正式、准确、保守，尽量避免模糊和歧义。但对于正式和准确的极至追求，使得法律英语显得过于复杂、累赘，甚至是枯燥乏。所有这些特点在法律英语的词法和句法中都有所体现，因此通过对法律英语的研究，能够对这一特殊语域有更深的认识。本论文遵循文体学的研究理论和方法，对法律英语的词法和句法进行全面而系统的归纳和探讨，进而对法律英语文体特征的原因进行分析并得出结论。关键词：法律英语；词汇特征；句法特征；风格特征10146
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Abstract Legal English is a special register of English．It has the distinctive features which distinguish from the literary language and other practical styles．Being a functional variant of English，the stylistic features of legal English are determined by the functions of law．Because of its special functions in the social activity, legal English is bound to be formal，accurate，conservative，being devoid of vagueness and ambiguity．One can have a deep understanding of the characters of this specific English style by studying features of legal English．The paper uses the comparative method to analyze the stylistic features of legal English from lexical and syntactic levels．
Key word: legal English; lexical features; syntactic features; style of legal English
Contents
摘 要 i
Abstract ii
I. Introduction 1
II. The lexical Features of Legal Language 2
2.1 Technical Terms 2
2.2 Common Words With Uncommon Meanings 3
2.3 Formal Big Lengthy Words 5
III. The Syntactic Features of Legal Language 6
3.1 The Basic Sentence Structure of Legal English 6
3.2 The Preponderance of Long and Declarative Sentences 7
3.3 Complicated Attributive Structure 9
IV. Descriptive style of legal English 9
4.1 Formal and Frozen in Style 10
4.2 Prolix and Rigid in Layout 11
4.3 Clear and Accurate in Description 11
Ⅴ. Conclusion 12
Bibliography 14
Acknowledgments 15 A Stylistic Study of Legal English
I. Introduction
Legal English is the cross—link of legal science and English linguistics. This thesis studies legal English as a particular language register by applying the relevant linguistic theories. Legal English plays its unique function in the field of law. Thereafter, according to Functional stylistics，the function of law determines the stylistic features legal English．Legal language first has the function of reflecting all kinds of social institutions and their activities in every field of human society, economy and life．It covers the activities of a country or society, the economical action of enterprise groups，and the living activities of inpidual and family．It provides the public with the rules and regularities in order to maintain the normal operation of human society, and people know the duty and rights of themselves and the others．Legal language also formulates rules to guide people “how to do things ”in every aspect of social life, in which it fixes the duties and rights of every member of the society, and the domain of human activity. Because of its special function ,law not only expresses the meaning it need to reveal，it must also prevent any loophole and misunderstanding in any form．This requires legal language to be exact with its word, and close with its organization．It is bound to be exact, precise and accurate. Besides, all the content should be literal and external.“The making, decree and operation of law are largely realized by language and the language which performs these functions is legal language.” Zhang Delu( 1998：341). Legal language is the carrier of the spirit and comment of law. The intention of the law markers is reflected by the language they use. Linguists both in our country and abroad have focused their attentions on this area, and they have done a lot of researches from different aspects．In the book Linguistic Aspects of Legislative Expression, American scholar Bowers make a study of legal English on various language levels. He applies the theories of Functionalism and the Speech Act Theory to the descriptions of he features of legal English，and tries to find out the linguistic explanations to the special style of this special language register．Lord Mansfield．one of the most famous of English judos，once stated that “most of he disputes the world arise from words”，from which we can know the great significance of each word in legal English．So, for the purpose of knowing the law of other countries，it is essential to know the language of the counties，especially the precise meanings of its words. Researchers in foreign countries often do research in narrow sense. In his book Varieties of English，HouWeirui view legal English as a functional register of English and he proposes to study characters in view of he functions it plays. As we all know, since China joined WTO，there are more and more chances for us to communicate with foreign countries．So more and more cases with foreign elements will appear, which means more and more talents who can master both English and law will be needed，But now we lack such talents because English is difficult．If we know the stylistic features of legal English，learning it will become easier．Therefore，1 would like to work on the study of the stylistic features of legal English，to write this dissertation．I hope my study will be of benefit to learners of legal English including those who are fond of legal English.