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Legalese is a technical language. As far as I’m concerned, it’s as close to plain English as SQL: close at first glance, but actully quite distinct.
by curiousllama 6y ago
Legalese is a technical language. As far as I’m concerned, it’s as close to plain English as SQL: close at first glance, but actully quite distinct.
- azuriten 6y agoThat's fair for law documents; in the same way I'd expect your peers to understand your SQL. I just wish privacy policies, which are supposed to be for consumers, were written in the plain English.
- thechao 6y agoI have a long-abiding interest in linguistics, and formal training in programming language theory. English legalese is my favorite pseudo-language. It's also the first pseudo-language I remember learning about, from my uncle. My uncle is a very accomplished attorney (up to the Supreme Court) and his comment was, to paraphrase: "legal texts are usually very clear once you understand them; it is the discovery of facts, and the application of the text to facts that are the domain of lawyers and judges".
- jacques_chester 6y agoIn law school the mnemonic was "IRAC": Issues, Rules, Application, Conclusion. A lot of legal writing at least rhymes with that structure.
- kemitchell 6y agoIt's just a dialect with some jargon. Still English, with all its chaos, at its core.