Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present genre specificity of the consumer warranty and various factors determining its structure and language as well as consumer regulations. Warranty is a type of document that is commonly used and widely known. However, a possibility of different interpretations of warranty content can lead to its incomprehensibility and/or misinterpretation and have s pecific legal consequences. The author analysed English version of 110 warranty documents for consumer goods. The collected research material indicates a structural and syntactic diversity ofwarranty documents. It also illustrates how content and the language of the document might facilitate or hinder its correct interpretation.
Highlights
Abstrakt: Celem artykułu jest omówienie specyfiki gatunkowej gwarancji konsumenckiej, a także różne czynniki determinujące jej strukturę i język (w tym przepisy konsumenckie)
Other examples of warranty in the Comparative Legilinguistics 15/2013 early civilisations are found in the Hammurabi Code which provided for the two following warranty options: (i) an eye-for an eye compensation illustrated by the following provision below: If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not made his work sound, and the house he built has fallen, and caused the death of its owner, that builder shall be put to death
The warranties in the corpus suggest that manufacturers do not pay attention to visual impact of the warranty document, they tend to economize and as a result many warranties are printed on poor quality paper, use small fonts, use very little space for warranty provisions so no margins or lists are used
Summary
The analysis of the collected documents suggests that warranty is not consumer-friendly, due to a number of factors discussed in this article This causes various problems with its correct interpretation because it can reduce consumer statutory rights, no matter whether it is a deliberate hedging strategy or is a consequence of the warranty writer’s ignorance or poor quality translation. The warranties in the corpus suggest that manufacturers do not pay attention to visual impact of the warranty document, they tend to economize and as a result many warranties are printed on poor quality paper, use small fonts, use very little space for warranty provisions so no margins or lists are used. In some cases a small section including warranty provision is attached to user’s manual and is difficult to find
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