Verbs as the Cinderella in Legal Language Training
摘要
Traditionally, nouns and nominal terms have been considered one of the most relevant portions of legal language carrying most of the legal information, which was also reflected in the focus on nominal terms in legal language training and lexicography. If any, the attention paid to verbs has mostly focused on collocability or the use of verbs to reduce nominalization. This chapter will take the example of verbs in legal English to argue that verbs may carry as much legal meaning as nouns, and therefore should receive adequate attention in legal English classrooms, both for lawyers and legal translators. First, it will address the verbs used in contract language. Second, it will deal with verbs in procedural and court language, when verbs may be used as frames for specific stages in the respective proceedings. Finally, the chapter will also touch upon useful or tricky verbs used across different branches of law to raise legal English students’ and legal translation trainees’ awareness of their uses and potential. The chapter will also present a number of exercises to be used in classroom either for awareness raising or for practice.