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СИМВОЛ НАУКИ ISSN 2410-700X № 5 / 2018.
ФИЛОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ
УДК 81
Vinogradova Л.А.
A student of Privolzhsky branch of the Russian state university of justice,
Nizhny Novgorod, the RF E-mail: [email protected]
LINGUISTICS AND JURISPRUDENCE Annotation
In this article, I try to trace the correlation between two important humanitarian sciences - jurisprudence and linguistics. The special consideration is given to the cognitive linguistics and its main notions, because the cognitive linguistics is the basis for the forensic linguistics expertise. The article provides examples of the cases, where the forensic linguistics expertise helps to solve disputes and even crimes and proves that nowadays interrelation of language and law cannot be overestimated.
Key words
Linguistics, jurisprudence, cognitive linguistics, legal interpretation, forensic linguistic expertise.
The graphic language form as means of information transmission and storage appeared approximately 5000 years ago. People realized very quickly the potential of a graphic sign in composing contracts, testaments and laws. Later the Greeks adopted the Tyrian alphabet, simplified the process of teaching literacy, and only then the principle of law supremacy was introduced. In the Roman Empire, the agreements were also often concluded in the written form.
Anglo-Saxon culture adopted the tradition of law implementation in writing. The first written laws in Great Britain appeared in the early 600-s, testaments and vassal agreements were written in parchment paper.
Any legal affair, for example, dispute resolution, concluding contracts or making wills involve the existence of the complicated communication system, which is not possible without a language. The ancient and strong correlation exists between language and law, at which the humankind started to speculate long ago.
The correlation of both language and law is underlined by many scientists, such as Golev N.D., Prokofiev G.S., Stefanova S.O., Chikeeva Z. Ch., Shepelev A.N. and others. One of the modern Russian linguists, Zura Chikeeva widely uses the term "legal culture". She asserts that both language and law are in constant progress and they are very closely connected with each other. Moreover, such correlation helps to improve the level of the legal culture of population [9].
Charles Edward Pollock, the main judge of the UK Treasury in the 19thcentury, once mentioned that judges are philologists of the highest category. English judges pay a great deal of attention to word meanings especially based on the principle of interpretation accepted by the lawyers. According to this principle, a judge should determine the meaning of the legal document not considering any evidence outside the text. Here the principle of the Roman law is at work: expression unius and ejusdem generis, which means, that general words should be interpreted only in reference to persons or objects of the same general character or type.
Cognitive linguistics is a prospective approach in legal interpretation. Cognitive linguistics as a part of cognitive science studies mind processes related to the language [1]. Cognitive linguistics is based on the assumption, that the major part of mind processes are influenced by the language. It is possible to study a person through his language - his thinking, memory, mind processes, etc. [7].
Thus, the cognitive linguistics is able to suggest the best way to interpret a legal contract or a law. There are also many extra linguistic factors, which should be taken into consideration while amending a legal document, and a lawyer or a law-making body should be guided by not only linguistic approach, but his life and professional experience as well.
The special field, where both linguistics and jurisprudence overlap, is juridical linguistics. Linguistic
СИМВОЛ НАУКИ ISSN 2410-700X № 5 / 2018.
expertise is a legally regulated research of oral and/or written text. The result of such expertise is a conclusion on issues, solving of which requires special knowledge in linguistic sciences and judicial speech studies [10]. Such type of expertise was studied by many scientists. For instance, A.N. Baranov, a modern linguist, represented his work "Linguistic expertise of a text". In his book, the author pays a special attention to this very new field of applied linguistics. He describes the methods, which help to analyze the text and determine the implied meaning of utterances [4] Thus, linguistic expertise can help in identifying the person, who has written a letter, in finding the author of this or that text. The main task of the linguistic expertise is the reliability of results, especially in authorship examination.
Linguistic expertise deals mainly with the research of a language and language structures. This expertise and the analysis hold within the frames of such expertise, is necessary in solving disputable issues both in civil matters and in court proceedings. In the Russian Federation, forensic expertise is regulated by Federal Law No. 73 issued on the 31st of May 2001, edited on the 8th of March, 2015. The conclusion composed based on such an expertise, is legally binding.
Linguistic analysis is required in any cases, for example:
■ in handling cases having relation to extremism;
■ in conducting cases on slander or honor and dignity abuse;
■ in civil abuse cases;
■ linguistic interpretation of legal texts, disputable documents (agreements);
■ assessment of speech acts as means of conscience manipulation (advertisement, pre-election methods). To sum up, the language and law are closely connected and many people have been thinking on their
interrelation for thousands of years. Juridical linguistics is a relatively young branch of linguistic science, which currently undergoes the stage of active development. The legal language is studied as a social phenomenon. The problems touched upon by juridical linguistics are versatile and challenging. Some of them require juridical and linguistic competence, others involve deep theoretical understanding and practical development, thus cooperation of scientists from various spheres is necessary - mainly phycologists, linguists, lawyers. We can draw a conclusion that juridical linguistics as a science is currently at the stage of active scientific research of a legal language all over the world.
References
1. Cognitive science [Электронный ресурс]. URL:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science (дата обращения: 25.04.2018).
2. Coulthard M., Johnson A. An introduction to Forensic language. Language in evidence. New York press. 2007. 250 p.
3. Англо-русский юридический словарь. [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.pravozoom.ru/dictionary/I (дата обращения: 15.04.2018).
4. Баранов А.Н. Лингвистическая экспертиза текста: Учебное пособие. М.: Наука. 2012. 591с.
5. Большой юридический словарь / Под ред. А. Я. Сухарева. 3-е изд., доп. и перераб. М.: ИНФРА-М, 2007. 858 с.
6. Бондаренко Е.Н. Лингвистическая экспертиза документов: формулировка вопросов, установление контекста и семантики ключевых слов // Язык и право: Актуальные проблемы взаимодействия. Мат-лы V межд. научн-практ.конф-и. Вып.5. Ростов н/Дону: Дониздат. 2015. С. 217-225.
7. Когнитивная лингвистика [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://knowledge.su/k7kognitivnaya-lingvistika (дата обращения: 25.04.2018).
8. Лингвистика и юриспруденция: насколько они полезны друг другу [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://lingex.ru/lingvistika-i-yurisprudenciya-naskolko-oni-polezny-drug-drugu/ (дата обращения: 23.04.2018).
9. Чикеева З.Ч. Соотношение права и языка: теоретико-правовой анализ. Вестник КРСУ. Том.14. №°6. С.157-158.
10. Что такое лингвистическая экспертиза? [Электронный ресурс]. URL: https://businessman.ru/new-chto-takoe-lingvisticheskaya-ekspertiza.html (дата обращения: 20.04.2018).
© Vinogradova A.A., 2018
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