法律英语中形容词搭配及其模糊性探讨——基于USC语料库的reasonable个案研究

On the Collocation of the Adjectives in Legal English and Their Vagueness:a Case Study of an Adjective Reasonable Based on USC Corpus

形容词因其模糊性特征在法律英语的研究中极少被关注。文章依托美国法典(USC)语料库,对高频形容词reasonable做了名词搭配、形容词并列两个方面的分析;从法律文体模糊性的特点出发,引入了法律文本"授权的工具"的本质,在语义层面论述了以reasonable为例的高频形容词在法律英语中存在并且平衡模糊性和准确性的重要意义。

Owing to the vagueness, adjective is a less popular topic in Legal English. By introducing legal texts＂ essence of ＂conferring of authority＂, the paper launches an analysis of a most representative adjective, reasonable on the basis of United States Code （USC）. By concerning its collocation with nouns and adjective juxtaposition, the paper tries to illustrate adjectives＂ unique semantic meaning and their importance to balance the preciseness and vagueness features in Legal English.