Why English Legal Discourse is Difficult to Understand

Abstract

To date, language complexity has come to the fore of modern linguistic research, which is related to scientific discussion of similarity / difference in the degree of complexity between various languages. There is general agreement among various linguists that it rests on a great number of parameters, which is the result of the lack of uniform knowledge about this relatively novel linguistic phenomenon. Under any circumstances, though the dichotomy principle underlies several approaches to the definition of complexity, i.e. it can be absolute (objective) and relational (subjective); systemic (paradigmatic) and structural (syntagmatic); the universal three-dimensional nature of language can serve as the guiding principle for the analysis of complexity parameters in any type of discourse. Thus, the paper highlights the lexical, syntactic and pragmatic parameters of English legal discourse (LD) language complexity based on the generally accepted semiotic triad. These elaborations are also complemented by the deployment of the research framework consisting of three models “language-communicator”, “language-language” and “language-discourse” which, though initially designed for different purposes, can as well be successfully applied to the study of language parameters as factors stipulating the language complexity of LD. The given models are illustrated by the relevant examples of legal and juridical nature.