This paper deals with the relationship between linguistic indeterminacy and precision in legal texts and, more specifically, it analyses how these aspects are conveyed in contracts, a specific type of legal document. The study offers a comparative description of contracts and other legal texts, with particular regard to the presence of vagueness and precision, and describes the linguistic strategies used to convey these elements. These aspects have been extensively studied, especially in texts that are characterized by a general applicability, such as laws, rules and statutes. The purpose of this study is, instead, to analyse the complexity of the relationship between vagueness and precision in documents that are not usually applicable to society as a whole, such as contracts. The analysis shows the coexistence and inter-dependence of elements such as linguistic indeterminacy and precision in contracts, even though these kinds of texts do not have to meet the need of conveying general applicability to the extent that laws, rules and statutes must.

Vagueness and precision in contracts: a close relationship.

ANESA, Patrizia
2007-01-01

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationship between linguistic indeterminacy and precision in legal texts and, more specifically, it analyses how these aspects are conveyed in contracts, a specific type of legal document. The study offers a comparative description of contracts and other legal texts, with particular regard to the presence of vagueness and precision, and describes the linguistic strategies used to convey these elements. These aspects have been extensively studied, especially in texts that are characterized by a general applicability, such as laws, rules and statutes. The purpose of this study is, instead, to analyse the complexity of the relationship between vagueness and precision in documents that are not usually applicable to society as a whole, such as contracts. The analysis shows the coexistence and inter-dependence of elements such as linguistic indeterminacy and precision in contracts, even though these kinds of texts do not have to meet the need of conveying general applicability to the extent that laws, rules and statutes must.
2007
legal language; vagueness; contracts
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/340346
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