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Chapter 4. Observing Eurolects

The case of English
  • Annalisa Sandrelli
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Observing Eurolects
This chapter is in the book Observing Eurolects

Abstract

The English text of any EU act is the product of collaboration between native and non-native drafters and is influenced by contact with the other EU languages in the multilingual drafting process. This study investigates the main differences between the language used in a corpus of EU directives (corpus A) and the language employed in the related UK national transposition measures (corpus B), via a mixture of quantitative data obtained using specific concordancing software (WordSmith Tools) and qualitative observations. The significant differences found at various levels (lexical, morpho-syntactic and textual) confirm the existence of a specific variety of English used in EU legislation, that is, an English Eurolect.

Abstract

The English text of any EU act is the product of collaboration between native and non-native drafters and is influenced by contact with the other EU languages in the multilingual drafting process. This study investigates the main differences between the language used in a corpus of EU directives (corpus A) and the language employed in the related UK national transposition measures (corpus B), via a mixture of quantitative data obtained using specific concordancing software (WordSmith Tools) and qualitative observations. The significant differences found at various levels (lexical, morpho-syntactic and textual) confirm the existence of a specific variety of English used in EU legislation, that is, an English Eurolect.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Acknowledgements xiii
  5. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  6. Chapter 2. The Eurolect Observatory Multilingual Corpus 27
  7. Chapter 3. Observing Eurolects 47
  8. Chapter 4. Observing Eurolects 63
  9. Chapter 5. Observing Eurolects 93
  10. Chapter 6. Observing Eurolects 121
  11. Chapter 7. Observing Eurolects 147
  12. Chapter 8. Observing Eurolects 169
  13. Chapter 9. Observing Eurolects 199
  14. Chapter 10. Observing Eurolects 243
  15. Chapter 11. Observing Eurolects 267
  16. Chapter 12. Observing Eurolects 295
  17. Chapter 13. Observing Eurolects 329
  18. Chapter 14. Conclusions 369
  19. Subject index 393
  20. Language index 395
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.86.04san

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Acknowledgements xiii
  5. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  6. Chapter 2. The Eurolect Observatory Multilingual Corpus 27
  7. Chapter 3. Observing Eurolects 47
  8. Chapter 4. Observing Eurolects 63
  9. Chapter 5. Observing Eurolects 93
  10. Chapter 6. Observing Eurolects 121
  11. Chapter 7. Observing Eurolects 147
  12. Chapter 8. Observing Eurolects 169
  13. Chapter 9. Observing Eurolects 199
  14. Chapter 10. Observing Eurolects 243
  15. Chapter 11. Observing Eurolects 267
  16. Chapter 12. Observing Eurolects 295
  17. Chapter 13. Observing Eurolects 329
  18. Chapter 14. Conclusions 369
  19. Subject index 393
  20. Language index 395
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