Abstract
In legislative texts, proviso is used to provide for exceptions or to add certain conditions to the provisions in the main clause. In Chinese legislative texts, proviso is called danshu, for it is initiated by the words dan/danshi. The linguistic expressions of danshu have not been fully described. This study, based on a self-built mini-corpus of danshu of Chinese legislative texts, aims to describe the linguistic expressions of danshu, summarize the syntactic patterns and core words thereof, and explain the reasons. This study will shed light on the normalization of Chinese legislative texts, especially the linguistic expressions of danshu, improve the quality of Chinese legislation, and enrich the study of provisos in legislative texts other than those in English language.
Highlights
Variability is inherent in human language: people use different linguistic forms on different occasions, and different speakers of a language will say the same thing in different ways
This study has described the linguistic expressions of danshu in Chinese laws, and it will shed light on the standardization of Chinese laws, especially the syntactic patterns and core lexis of danshu thereof
Based on a self-built mini-corpus of danshu of Chinese legislative texts, this study has classified danshu into four types according to their content, and finds that: 1) the linguistic expressions of exclusionary danshu
Summary
Variability is inherent in human language: people use different linguistic forms on different occasions, and different speakers of a language will say the same thing in different ways. Most of this linguistic variation is highly systematic The subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) focuses on description of the language used in registers and genres from a particular profession or academic discipline, with its goal of developing instructional materials that will help students learn the particular language patterns that are typical for the different situations and different kinds of texts in those fields
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