Formal Linguistics and Law

Formal Linguistics and Law

In: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM], 212

Edited by: Günther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert

De Gruyter Mouton | 2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110218398

Overview
Contents

About this book

This volume explores new interfaces between linguistics and jurisprudence. Its theoretical and methodological importance lies in showing that many questions asked within the field of language and law receive satisfactory answers from formal linguistics.

The book starts with a paper by the two editors in which they explain why the volume - as a whole and with its individual papers - is an innovation in the field of language and law. In addition, an overview about the most important research projects on language and law is given. The first chapter of the book is on understanding the law. Jurists and laypersons always ask for the precise meaning of a certain piece of the law. In linguistics, the discipline investigating 'meaning' is semantics; thus, it is to be expected that semantics can contribute to a correct understanding of the law. Chapter 1 also investigates the alleged incomprehensibility of legal language with the help of psycholinguistics. Chapter 2 is on identifying the criminal. To find the author of a blackmailer's letter, text/ corpus linguistics is instrumental. If the blackmailer uses the telephone instead of the letter, speaker identification and phonetics are necessary. The BKA stores all blackmailing letters in a database, but databases are only one possibility of organizing legal systems; another possibility is the application of tools from computational linguistics and artificial intelligence. These tools can be useful to handle terminology, to retrieve information, or to model legal theorizing in a formal system. Chapter 3 demonstrates a variety of examples of organizing legal systems. The topic of chapter 4 is multilingualism and the law. The European legislation is a product of legal and linguistic diversity, as the member states do not only differ in languages but also in their legal systems. One paper shows how Switzerland handles its multilingualism in legal drafting. The input of translation studies is of course vital in this field of research. An index for both subjects and persons complements the volume.

Author information

Günther Grewendorf, University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Monika Rathert, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany.

Frontmatter Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	i
Table of contents Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	v
Acknowledgements Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	vii
List of contributors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	ix
Language and Law – new applications of formal linguistics Günther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
Part 1. Understanding the law: The contribution of semantics and psycholinguistics
Law matters, syntax matters and semantics matters Carl Vogel Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	25
Improving the comprehensibility of German court decisions Stella Neumann Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	55
Understanding a Riester-pension: A reply to Becker and Klein (2008) Monika Rathert Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	81
Part 2. Identifying the criminal: The contribution of phonetics and text/corpus linguistics
Forensic phonetics and the influence of speaking style on global measures of fundamental frequency Michael Jessen Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	115
Phonetic cues to speaker age: A longitudinal study Angelika Braun and Stefan Friebis Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	141
Does speech reveal one’s age? On the use of gerontolinguistic topics for forensic authorship analysis Jan Seifert Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	163
Part 3. Organizing legal systems: The contribution of computational linguistics and artificial intelligence
Definition extraction from court decisions using computational linguistic technology Stephan Walter Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	183
Making sense of legal texts Emile Maat, Radboud Winkels and Tom Engers Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	225
Interfacing between different legal systems using the examples of N-Lex and EUR-Lex Doris Liebwald Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	257
The LOIS project and beyond Erich Schweighofer Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	293
Part 4. Multilingualism and the law: The contribution of translation studies
Multilingualism in the European Union Status quo and perspectives: The reference language model Karin Luttermann Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	315
Drafting and interpretation of EU law – paradoxes of legal multilingualism Agnieszka Doczekalska Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	339
Multilingual law drafting in Switzerland Andreas Lötscher Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	371
A modular approach to legal drafting and translation Jacqueline Visconti Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	401
Backmatter Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	427

Formal Linguistics and Law

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