| Law is the guideline for man's behaviors, so to avoid disputes law languageshould be precise, formal and solemn. Thus special style of legal language is formed,which becomes the subject of forensic linguistics, a branch of applied linguistics.Legal English, language used by law practitioners of Common Law System shares alot in common with other law languages in language style. Since each variety of agiven language makes use of its specific vocabulary in order to realize its special style,legal English also possesses a distinctive vocabulary. Some legal terms are ushered infrom Latin, French, Greek and etc. to realize the formality, solemnity, rigidness oflegal English; some archaic words can also be found in legal English and evencommon words have been endowed with special meanings in legal language.This paper discusses the characteristic features of legal English lexicon. Based onthe general knowledge of legal English and lexicology, the paper focuses on how thechoice of legal words is influenced by the function it has to serve in particularsituations. Also some implications based on the analysis are provided to help thosepeople related to this field. A knowledge of these features of legal English will help usto better our learning, teaching, translating as wel as comprehending legal English. |
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