Keywords
cognitive linguistics
modality
How to Cite
Abstract
The paper involves three main fields of linguistic analysis: the pragmatic theory of speech acts, cognitive linguistics and legal language. Its main aim is to demonstrate the relevance of the cognitive framework to the analysis of speech acts and especially the deontic use of the modal verb shall in the legal context. The focus is on the use of the modal, which is mainly used to impose obligations or to confer rights. Thus, its meaning seems to be in most cases a combination of both assertive and directive illocutionary forces when approached from a pragmatic perspective, and a combination of deonticity with futurity and prediction in traditional grammar terminology. The discussion is illustrated with a variety of examples retrieved from a corpus of legal documents drafted in English and translated into Polish.
It is argued that the meaning of most instances of shall in the legal domain, due to its context-sensitivity, can be best accounted for in terms of a cognitive blend, which integrates various aspects of its meaning. These aspects are believed to be inherently vague and possibly an instance of ongoing processes of grammaticalisation, which can only be grasped with reference to the context of a particular expression, thus pragmatic in nature.
References
Akmajian, A., R.A. Demers, A.K. Farmer i R.M. Harnish (2001) Linguistics. An Introduction to Language and Communication. 5th ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Austin, J.L. (1962) How to Do Things with Words. London: Oxford University Press.
Barker, Stephen J. (2004) Renewing Meaning. A Speech-Act Theoretic Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad & Edward Finegan (1999) Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.
Blakemore, D. (1989) “Linguistic form and pragmatic interpretation: the explicit and the implicit” In: The Pragmatics of Style ed. by L. Hickey. London: Routledge, pp.28-51.
Carston, R. (2002) Thoughts and Utterances. The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication. Oxford: Blackwell.
Van Dijk, T.A. (1977), Text and Context. London: Longman.
Fauconnier, G. (1985) Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.
Fauconnier, G. (1999) “Methods and generalisations” In: Janssen, T. & G. Redeker, pp. 96-127.
Fauconnier, G. i M. Turner (1996) “Blending as a Central Process of Grammar” In: A. Goldberg Conceptual Structure, Discourse and Language. Stanford: CSLI, pp. 113-130 (the expanded version of the article i salso available In Polish in: W. Kubiński & D. Stanulewicz (eds.) (2001) Językoznawstwo kognitywne II. Zjawiska pragmatyczne. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, pp. 173-211).
Harris, R. (1998) Introduction to Integrational Linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon.
Janssen, T. & G. Bedeker (eds.) Cognitive Linguistics: Foundations, Scope, and Methodology. Berlin & New York: Mouton.
Kalisz, R. (2001) „Pojęcia pragmatyki językowej w świetle językoznawstwa kognitywnego” In: W. Kubiński & D. Stanulewicz (eds.) Językoznawstwo kognitywne II. Zjawiska pragmatyczne, pp. 13-21.
W. Kubiński & D. Stanulewicz (eds.) (2001) Językoznawstwo kognitywne II. Zjawiska pragmatyczne. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.
Kurzon, D. (1986) It is Hereby Performed ... Explorations in legal speech acts. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Lakoff, G. (1987) Women, Fire,and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Langacker, R.W. (1983) Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, 2 vol. Trier: LAUT.
Langacker, R.W. (1999) Grammar and Conceptualization. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lauchman, Richard (2001-2005) Plain Language. A handbook for writers in the U.S. Government. http://www.lauchmangroup.com/PDFfiles/PLHandbook.PDF (accessed May 2005)
Lycan, W.G. (2000) Philosophy of Language. A contemporary introduction. London & New York: Routledge.
Palmer, Frank R. (1990) Modality and the English Modals (2nd ed.). London & New York: Longman.
Palmer, Frank R. (1986/2001) Mood and Modality. Cambridge: CUP.
Robinson, Stanley (1973) Drafting: Its application to conveyancing and commercial documents. London: Butterworths.
Rosch, E. (1975). “Cognitive representations of semantic categories.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104, pp.192-233.
Ross, J.R. (1970) “On Declarative Sentences” In: R.A. Jacobs & P.S. Rosenbaum (eds.) Readings in English Transformational Grammar. Waltham, Mass.: Ginn., pp.222-272.
Sadock, J. (1974) Toward a Linguistic Theory of Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.
Searle, J.R. (1969) Speech Acts. An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Searle, J.R. & D. Vanderveken (1985) Foundations of Illocutionary Logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sweetser, E. (1990) From etymology to pragmatics. Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sweetser, E. (1999) “Compositionality and blending: semantic composition in a cognitively realistic framework” In: Janssen, T. & G. Redeker, pp. 129-162.
Toolan, M. (1996) Total Speech: An Integrational Linguistic Approach to Language. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Trosborg, A. (1994) “’Acts’ in contracts: Some guidelines for translation”. Translation Studies – An Interdiscipline. ed.by M. Snell-Hornby et al. Benjamin Transl. 2, pp.309-318.
Trosborg, A. (1991) “An Analysis of Legal Speech Acts in English Contract Law” Hermes Journal of Linguistics, vol.6, pp.65-90.
Vanderveken, D. (1990) Meaning and Speech Acts. Vol.1: Principles of Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vanderveken, D. (1991) Meaning and Speech Acts. Vol.2: Formal Semantics of Success and Satisfaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vanderveken, D. (1994) “A complete formulation of a simple logic of elementary illocutionary acts” In: S.L. Tsohatzidis (ed.) Foundations of Speech Act Theory: Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 99-131.
Verschueren, J. (1999) Understanding Pragmatics. New York: Arnold.
Witczak-Plisiecka, I. (2001) Semantic and Pragmatic Aspects of Speech Acts in English Legal Texts, niepublikowana praca doktorska, Uniwersytet Łódzki.
Wittgenstein, L. (1953) Philosophical Investigations. New York: Macmillan.
License
When submitting a paper the author agrees to the following publishing agreement and processing personal data.
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT, COPYRIGHT LICENSE, PERSONAL DATA PROCESSING CONSENT
This is a publication agreement and copyright license (“Agreement”) regarding a written manuscript currently submitted via Pressto platform
(“Article”) to be published in Comparative Legilinguistics International Journal for Legal Communication (“Journal”).
The parties to this Agreement are:
the Author or Authors of the submitted article (individually, or if more than one author, collectively, “Author”) and Comparative Legilinguistics International Journal for Legal Communication (“Publisher”), address al. Niepodległości 4, 61-874 Poznań, represented by its editor in chief Aleksandra Matulewska.
§1. LICENSE OF COPYRIGHT
a) The Author and the Publisher agree that the Author grants a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which is incorporated herein by reference and is further specified at Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 copyright license in the Article to the general public.
b) The Author grants to the Publisher a royalty-free, worldwide nonexclusive license to publish, reproduce, display, distribute, translate and use the Article in any form, either separately or as part of a collective work, including but not limited to a nonexclusive license to publish the Article in an issue of the Journal, copy and distribute individual reprints of the Article, authorize reproduction of the entire Article in another publication, and authorize reproduction and distribution of the Article or an abstract thereof by means of computerized retrieval systems (such as Westlaw, Lexis and SSRN). The Author retains ownership of all rights under copyright in the Article, and all rights not expressly granted in this Agreement.
c) The Author grants to the Publisher the power to assign, sublicense or otherwise transfer any and all licenses expressly granted to the Publisher under this Agreement.
d) Republication. The Author agrees to require that the Publisher be given credit as the original publisher in any republication of the Article authorized by the Author. If the Publisher authorizes any other party to republish the Article under the terms of paragraphs 1c and 1 of this Agreement, the Publisher shall require such party to ensure that the Author is credited as the Author.
§2. EDITING OF THE ARTICLE
a) The Author agrees that the Publisher may edit the Article as suitable for publication in the Journal. To the extent that the Publisher’s edits amount to copyrightable works of authorship, the Publisher hereby assigns all right, title, and interest in such edits to the Author.
§3. WARRANTIES
a) The Author represents and warrants that to the best of the Author’s knowledge the Article does not defame any person, does not invade the privacy of any person, and does not in any other manner infringe upon the rights of any person. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Publisher against all such claims.
b) The Author represents and warrants that the Author has full power and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant the licenses granted in this Agreement.
c) The Author represents and warrants that the Article furnished to the Publisher has not been published previously. For purposes of this paragraph, making a copy of the Article accessible over the Internet, including, but not limited to, posting the Article to a database accessible over the Internet, does not constitute prior publication so long as the as such copy indicates that the Article is not in final form, such as by designating such copy to be a “draft,” a “working paper,” or “work-in-progress”. The Author agrees to hold harmless the Publisher, its licensees and distributees, from any claim, action, or proceeding alleging facts that constitute a breach of any warranty enumerated in this paragraph.
§4. TERM
a) The agreement was concluded for an unspecified time.
§5. PAYMENT
a) The Author agrees and acknowledges that the Author will receive no payment from the Publisher for use of the Article or the licenses granted in this Agreement.
b) The Publisher agrees and acknowledges that the Publisher will not receive any payment from the Author for publication by the Publisher.
§6. ENTIRE AGREEMENT
a) This Agreement supersedes any and all other agreements, either oral or in writing, between the Author and the Publisher with respect to the subject of this Agreement. This Agreement contains all of the warranties and agreements between the parties with respect to the Article, and each party acknowledges that no representations, inducements, promises, or agreements have been made by or on behalf of any party except those warranties and agreements embodied in this Agreement.
b) In all cases not regulated by this Agreement, legal provisions of Polish Copyright Act and Polish Civil Code shall apply.
c) Any disputes arising from the enforcement of obligations connected with this Agreement shall be resolved by a court competent for the headquarters of the Publisher.
d) Any amendments or additions to the Agreement must be made in writing and signed by authorised representative of both parties, otherwise being ineffective.
e) This Agreement is signed electronically and the submission of the article via the PRESSto platform is considered as the conclusion of the Agreement by the Author and the Publisher.
f) Clause for consent to the processing of personal data - general
g) The Author shall give his or her consent to the processing of their personal data in accordance with the Act of 10 May 2018 on the protection of personal data and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of persons physical in connection with the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46 / EC (General Data Protection Regulation) for the purpose and in connection with making publications available on the PRESSto scientific journals platform and DeGruyter platform, guaranteeing the security of services rendered, and improving them.
I HAVE READ AND AGREE FULLY WITH THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT.
The Author The Publisher