Long Sentences In Legal English

Legal language is the carrier and manifestation of law. Legal English is one of legal languages. It is the language of the law of England, America, and some other countries whose official language is English. Legal English is the language which possesses the legal professional features based on common core English, formed and used in the activities of legislation and judicature. Forensic linguistics belongs to the scope of applied linguistics.There are many specific words with special legal meanings in legal English. Moreover, the legal documents which stipulate rights and obligations must be precise, objective and standard disallowing any amplification or emotional expression, so many particular features of syntax are formed. The most striking characteristic of legal syntax is the preponderance of long sentences.With the deepening of China's reform and opening to the outside world, and the progressive perfection of its socialist market economy, our country is accelerating the process of its legal construction. So it is necessary to learn and borrow experiences from the laws and regulations of other developed countries. Meanwhile, in order to let the world know more about China's legal construction and its policies and regulations, further introduce foreign investment and promote the development and prosperity of China's economy, the importance of legal translation is becoming more and more prominent. Thus to know the stylistic features of syntax in legal English is of great significance to learners of legal English including those who are fond of legal English, or workers of the legal profession, such as lawyers, judges and translators. And we must attach great importance to such features while translating legal documents.The thesis describes and analyzes the linguistic features of long sentences in legal English, mainly following the framework set by David Crystal and Derek Davy, applying J. L. Austin and John R. Searle's speech acts theory and other research results made in forensic linguistics, and gets the conclusion that long sentences in legal English mainly results from the use of many adverbial clauses, attributive clauses and parallel structures. The author analyzes how to translate legal documents, especially how to translate long sentences in legal English. It is expected that these description and interpretation may shed some enlightening light for understanding and translating legal documents, and will pose further research questions in the study of legal language.