By integrating different research angles and methods of philosophy of law, sociology of law, applied linguistics, and legal translation, this book presents a groundbreaking approach to the non-standardization phenomenon in Chinese legislative language, unveils the underlying causes and adverse effects thereof, and provides potential principles, strategies, and methods to be followed in the standardization of Chinese legislative language. Divided into three parts, this book firstly talks about the fuzziness of language, addressing both the active and negative influences thereof on the legislation; secondly approaches the non-standardization phenomenon in Chinese legislative language from the perspective of philosophy of law; and thirdly offers a comprehensive studies on the standardization of Chinese legislative language, offering possible solutions to address the above-mentioned problems and promote the standardized development of law making. This book facilitates the legal practitioners, jurists, law students, legal translators as well as the non-experts to get a better understanding of the mechanism and process of legislation and improve their skills and capacities in apprehending and translating Chinese laws and regulations.
Author(s): Xiaobo Dong, Yafang Zhang
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 178
City: Singapore
Preface
Contents
About the Authors
1 Introduction
1.1 Research at Home and Abroad
1.2 Objectives, Content and Significances
1.2.1 Concept and Essence of Legislative Language
1.2.2 An Empirical Analysis of Violation of Norms in China’s Legislative Text Translation
1.2.3 Adverse Effects of Violation of Norms in Legislative Text Translation
1.2.4 Causes of Violation of Norms in Legislative Text Translation and Its Countermeasures
1.2.5 Ways to Correct the Violation of Norms in China’s Legislative Texts
Notes
References
2 An Overview of Legal Language
2.1 Law and Language
2.1.1 Language Constructs the Meaning of Law, and Is the Ontological World of Law
2.1.2 It Is the Mission of Legal Professionals to Pursue the Meaning of Law Through Language
2.2 Legal Language
2.3 Characteristics of Legal Language
2.3.1 Language Style
2.3.2 Legal Glossary
2.3.3 Lexical Classification
2.3.4 Semantics
References
3 Research on Legal Language
3.1 The Linguistic Turn of Western Jurisprudence
3.2 Evolution of Legal Language Research Methods
3.2.1 The Rhetoric Tradition Stage
3.2.2 The Positivism Research Stage
3.2.3 The Sociological Research Stage
3.3 Forensic Linguistics and Its Research
3.3.1 Research on Anglo-American Legal Linguistics
3.3.2 An Overview of the Research of Forensic Linguistics in China
3.4 Conclusion
Note
References
4 Legislative Language
4.1 Legislation and Legislative Language
4.1.1 Law
4.1.2 Regulations
4.1.3 Rules
4.2 Stylistic Features of Legislative Language
4.2.1 The Lexical Features of Legislative Language
4.2.2 The Syntactical Features of Legislative Language
4.2.3 The Text Features of Legislative Language
References
5 Fuzziness and Legislative Language
5.1 Fuzziness of Legislative Language
5.1.1 Fuzziness of Language
5.2 Language Types Related to the Fuzziness
5.2.1 Vagueness
5.2.2 Ambiguity
5.2.3 Generality
5.2.4 Uncertainty
5.3 Features of Fuzziness in Legislative Language
5.3.1 Uncertainty
5.3.2 Relativity
5.3.3 Obscure Boundary Division
5.4 Classification of Fuzziness of Legislative Language
5.4.1 Division Upon Context Changes
5.4.2 Division Upon Expression Functions
5.4.3 Division Upon Word Types
5.5 Conclusion
References
6 Reasons for the Fuzziness of Legislative Language
6.1 Subjective Reason of the Legislative Subject
6.1.1 Cognitive Limitations of Legislative Subject
6.1.2 Intentional Fuzziness of Legislative Subject
6.2 Complexity of the Facts of Legal Relations
6.3 Limitations of Language Expression System
6.3.1 Non-Existence of One-to-One Correspondence Between Language and the Objective World
6.3.2 The Polysemy of Language
6.3.3 The Flexibility of Language Meaning
6.4 Characteristics of Chinese Characters
6.5 Influence of National Traditional Culture
6.6 Requirements of China’s Fundamental Reality
6.7 Conclusion
References
7 The Positive Function of Fuzzy Legislative Language and Its Realization
7.1 Positive Function of Fuzzy Legislative Language
7.1.1 Beneficial to Realize the Integration of Stability and Changeability of Law
7.1.2 Beneficial to Realize the Integration of Openness and Flexibility of Law
7.1.3 Beneficial to Realize the Integration of the Finiteness of Language and the Infinity of Objective Things
7.2 Value Realization of Fuzzy Legislative Language
7.2.1 Beneficial to Realize the Universality and Adaptability of Law
7.2.2 Reserve Space for the Application and Development of Law
7.3 Conclusion
References
8 Fuzziness and Violation of Norms in Chinese Legislative Language
8.1 Ontology of Violation of Norms in Legislative Language in China
8.1.1 Grammatical Errors
8.1.2 Incomplete Sentence Components
8.1.3 Misuse of Function Words
8.1.4 Semantic Ambiguity
8.1.5 Inappropriate Language Logic
8.2 Epistemology of Violation of Norms in Legislative Language in China
8.2.1 Lag of Legislative Technology Theory Research
8.2.2 Absence of Special Legislative Drafting Body
8.2.3 Absence of Legislative Language Review Procedures
8.2.4 Influence of Language Culture and the Weak Consciousness of Language Norms
8.3 Axiology of Violation of Norms in Legislative Language in China
8.3.1 Adverse Effects and Negative Consequences of Violation of Norms in Legislative Language
8.3.2 Possible Methods to Revise Violation of Norms in Legislative Language in China
8.3.3 To Make Greater Efforts to Build Up a Standard Legislative Language Corpus
8.4 Conclusion
References
9 Thoughts on Standardization of Chinese Legislative Language from the Perspective of Sociology of Law
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The Legal Sociological Reasons for Fuzziness of Legislative Language
9.3 Western Explorations on Eliminating the Negative Effects of Fuzziness of Legal Language
9.4 Standardization of Chinese Legislative Language
9.4.1 Current Situation of Chinese Legislative Language Development
9.4.2 Suggestions on Standardization of Chinese Legislative Language and Its Translation
9.5 Conclusion
References
