On The Contextual Features Of Literary And Legal Languages

Law and literature belongs to different disciplines, but there's no absolute distinction: both need language for explanation, and both need to be understood in specific context. Law and Literature is an academic movement originated in the American law schools, has evolved into a legal genre or realm, and has come to be familiarized by the Chinese in recent years. There is a rich but confused connection between the two, and they share certain similarities. A study on the two disciplines can help in achieving knowledge increment, enriching the literary realm, and extending the vision of literary study. Firstly, the value orientations of law and literature are different. Secondly, the difference between the value orientations of law and literature determines that their languages also varied, which certainly exists because of the functions of the discipline and the languages themselves. As a result, we must recognize the contextual features of language as we read the legal rules and the literary texts, which is especially important to the latter. It not only helps us to better grasp the differences between the value orientations of law and literature, but also, on this basis, helps us to further understand the verbal selection differences between the value orientations of law and literature even though expressing the same theme. And only by this way can we better understand the contextual connotation of language.