A Brief Analysis of Legal Interpretation from the Perspective of Linguistics—Taking Article 144 of the Civil Code as the Starting Point

Abstract

Linguistics and law are closely related disciplines. The study of linguistics aims at instructing people how to use language and express ideas accurately, while the study of law focuses on the study of legal phenomena, whose purpose is to maintain social stability and realize social justice through the construction and maintenance of order. As an applied subject emerging in China at the end of the 20th century, which arouses more and more scholars to devoted themselves to the study of legal linguistics , and they have made gratifying achievements. For every legal scholar, it is vital to learn to use the method of legal linguistics flexibly in the process of judicial practice to deal with practical problems. Due to legal linguistics is a marginal subject in academic circles, scholars for its research is relatively restricted, especially in the judicial practice, therefore, this article will mainly focus on the nature of legal linguistics, present situation of legal linguistics research, the characteristics of the current Chinese legal linguistics, and the legal linguistics research methods. In addition, since the Civil Code has just been published this year, we need to use the logic of legal linguistics to understand and interpret the obscure legal provisions in the Civil Code. Taking Article 144 of the Civil Code as the starting point of the study, different scholars have different opinions on it. Some scholars believe that the civil involved in this Article should include pure profit-making behavior, while others hold the opposite attitude. This essay will use the method of legal linguistics to analyze whether the norm of invalid civil legal act performed by a person without civil capacity should include the behavior of pure profit, and makes a further interpretation of this article. In order to correctly interpret this legal provision, it requires us to analyze it from the perspective of legal linguistics by adopting the three methods of legal linguistics research mentioned below.