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Chapter 7. Are law reports an ‘agile’ or an ‘uptight’ register?

Tracking patterns of historical change in the use of colloquial and complexity features
  • Douglas Biber and Bethany Gray
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Corpus-based Research on Variation in English Legal Discourse
This chapter is in the book Corpus-based Research on Variation in English Legal Discourse

Abstract

Language change is a natural evolutionary process, and as a result it is reasonable to expect that all registers will undergo historical change to some extent. While some registers adopt linguistic innovations readily, others resist such changes and exhibit more conservative patterns of change. This chapter considers the extent to which law reports have adopted linguistic innovations observed in other written registers (fiction, newspapers, and science prose). The analysis considers features related to two competing factors influencing historical change in written texts: popularization (the adoption of colloquial features associated with the need to write texts for a large and general population of readers) and economy (increases in the use of phrasal complexity features to create informationally-dense texts for specialist readers). The analysis shows that compared to other written registers, law reports have been relatively conservative and resistant to historical change. These results are interpreted relative to the situational and communicative characteristics of law reports.

Abstract

Language change is a natural evolutionary process, and as a result it is reasonable to expect that all registers will undergo historical change to some extent. While some registers adopt linguistic innovations readily, others resist such changes and exhibit more conservative patterns of change. This chapter considers the extent to which law reports have adopted linguistic innovations observed in other written registers (fiction, newspapers, and science prose). The analysis considers features related to two competing factors influencing historical change in written texts: popularization (the adoption of colloquial features associated with the need to write texts for a large and general population of readers) and economy (increases in the use of phrasal complexity features to create informationally-dense texts for specialist readers). The analysis shows that compared to other written registers, law reports have been relatively conservative and resistant to historical change. These results are interpreted relative to the situational and communicative characteristics of law reports.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Chapter 1. “Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer?” English legal discourse past and present 1
  5. Part I. Cross-genre and cross-linguistic variation
  6. Chapter 2. English and Italian land contracts 25
  7. Chapter 3. Conditionals in spoken courtroom and parliamentary discourse in English, French, and Spanish 51
  8. Chapter 4. Part-of-speech patterns in legal genres 79
  9. Chapter 5. A comparison of lexical bundles in spoken courtroom language across time, registers, and varieties 105
  10. Chapter 6. “It is not just a fact that the law requires this, but it is a reasonable fact” 123
  11. Part II. Diachronic variation
  12. Chapter 7. Are law reports an ‘agile’ or an ‘uptight’ register? 149
  13. Chapter 8. Interpersonality in legal written discourse 171
  14. Chapter 9. The evolution of a legal genre 201
  15. Chapter 10. The representation of citizens and monarchy in Acts of Parliament in 1800 to 2000 235
  16. Chapter 11. Drinking and crime 261
  17. Name index 287
  18. Subject index 291
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.91.07bib

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Chapter 1. “Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer?” English legal discourse past and present 1
  5. Part I. Cross-genre and cross-linguistic variation
  6. Chapter 2. English and Italian land contracts 25
  7. Chapter 3. Conditionals in spoken courtroom and parliamentary discourse in English, French, and Spanish 51
  8. Chapter 4. Part-of-speech patterns in legal genres 79
  9. Chapter 5. A comparison of lexical bundles in spoken courtroom language across time, registers, and varieties 105
  10. Chapter 6. “It is not just a fact that the law requires this, but it is a reasonable fact” 123
  11. Part II. Diachronic variation
  12. Chapter 7. Are law reports an ‘agile’ or an ‘uptight’ register? 149
  13. Chapter 8. Interpersonality in legal written discourse 171
  14. Chapter 9. The evolution of a legal genre 201
  15. Chapter 10. The representation of citizens and monarchy in Acts of Parliament in 1800 to 2000 235
  16. Chapter 11. Drinking and crime 261
  17. Name index 287
  18. Subject index 291
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