Mastering the legal register through reading comprehension exercises

incl. ref.

Legal English is conservative, formal, syntactically complex and often archaic, with obscure expressions that hardly occur in the language at large. Of course, all professions have their own jargon. But, in recent times, lawyers have tried to make their profession less mysterious. With this background information and within the framework of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and a passing reference to plain English campaigns, this paper will explore the intricacies of "legalese" by analyzing several extracts (from wills, statutes...) which will help Ilústrate the technical terminology of the subject in hand. Such key features of written legal language as: manner, typography and layout, lexis and grammar, will be especially highlighted. Other text segments will also be exploited, drawn from recently published newspa-per and magazine articles, commonly read by native speakers, and, generally packed with legal terms and phrases that the layman, more often than not comes across when reading ,them. Finally, this talk will be supplemented with one or two excerpts from lively cassette material to give participants/students extra exposure to the language of the law, show them how this register functions and develop their lis-tening skills and pronunciation.