Grammatical and Syntactical Level

Sentence length and complexity. The grammatical features of English legal sentences are as distinctive as those of lexis. Most striking is the complexity of sentences which is evident at first sight. Such an enormous complexity is the result of heavy modification, embedded clauses, unusual word order and inserting words or phrases in places where they, in common speech, do not appear. As a result, the great majority of sentences are long compound or complex sentences with a minimum of simple sentences (clauses). These simple sentences, along with short complex ones, are usually at the beginning (in the opening paragraphs) or at the end of the text, e.g.:

1) I revoke all my prior wills and codicils.

2) WITNESS my hand and official seal.

3) This Act extends only to Northern Ireland.

Referring to modification, it is post-modification that supersedes the other category, that of pre-modification. The former is carried out by numerous phrases, namely prepositional and adverbial, finite and non-finite clauses, and of-constructions. Their order (of the phrases) is done with respect to what is being modified and what the importance of the modified and modifying element is, e.g.:

4) I give my entire interest in the real property which was my residence at the time of my death, together with any insurance on such real property, but subject to any encumbrances on said real property, to my spouse, John T. Webster.

5) Contractor is responsible for paying when due all income taxes, incurred as result of the compensation paid by Client to Contractor for services under this Agreement.

Therefore, sometimes there are phrases inserted into phrases where they do not belong, and very clumsy and no elegant sequences come into existence, e.g.:

6) For violation by the Player of any regulation or other provision of this contract...

7) Contractor is responsible for paying when due all income taxes, incurred as result of the compensation paid by Client to Contractor for services under this Agreement.

Even the predicate may become separated, e.g.:

8) During the term of this agreement, Contractor shall not, directly or indirectly, either as a Contractor, Client, consultant, agent, principal, partner, stockholder, corporate officer, director, or in any other individual or representative capacity, engage or participate in any business ….

As far as word order concerns, it is not unusual that a sentence begins with an adverbial, e.g.:

9) At his or her request and in his or her presence and in the presence of each other, we herewith subscribe our names as witnesses hereto…

10) During the term of this agreement, Contractor shall not …

So, sentences can stretch over several lines, constitute one whole paragraph, and it is not an exception that a whole document can consist of one sentence only.

Another typical grammatical feature of legal English is the use of modal auxiliaries “ will” and “ shall ” as those appearing most frequently. In everyday speech, “will” is used in majority, “shall” only on special occasions, and they both refer to future. In legal documents, there is a difference in the use. Both auxiliaries are applied to refer to future, but “ shall” denotes obligation, so it is invariably used to express an obligatory consequence of a legal decision. The following are some examples:

11) No Trustee shall be liable to any person interested in the Trust for any act or default …

12) However, estate taxes attributable to any gift… shall be paid from the residuary of the Estate.

However, some of the documents contain both “will” and “shall” with reference to future and obligation. The difference seems to be so slight that it is hard to explain. Perhaps “shall”, in these occurrences, expresses more weight and emphasis as in the following:

13) … the Club will pay the Player the sum of $____, in semi-monthly instalments after the commencement of the championship season(s) covered by this contract except as the schedule of payments may be modified by a special covenant.

14) Payment shall be made on the day the amount becomes due, regardless of whether the Club is “home” or “abroad”.

In the first sentence the reason for using “ will” seems to be the last part beginning with “except as”, because it leaves some space for the modification of the schedule. In the second sentence with “ shall” it is stated precisely, that the payment must be done on the date that the player and the club agreed on either in the contract, or in a special covenant. And “ shall not” is a prohibition. When a prohibition is imposed, legal consequence or penalty will arise for violation

So, “ shall ” largely denotes strong modality and needs to be rendered into Ukrainian by verbs in the present tense forms, e.g.: The client shall observe the Regulation. – Клієнт зобов’язується дотримуватися положень цієї інструкції.

Sometimes it is possible to find other auxiliaries, such as may, must and even would. “ May” is employed to express permission and possibility both at present and in the future.

Would and must are used, though, only under special circumstances and context, or even for grammatical purposes, such as the conditional in the samples below. The information being mediated conditions the use. Thus must and would seem to be rather rare.

15) The Player represents that he has no physical or mental defects known to him and unknown to the appropriate representatives of the Club which would prevent or impair performance of his services.

Impersonality. All the documents also contain grammatical markers which underlay its level of formality. Firstly, the documents are written in 3rd person, e.g. Player, Organization, Club, President, Assignee, Grantor, Grantee, Client, Agreement, Executor, Will, Estate, etc. In some parts appear relevant pronouns such as its, her, his, they. There is also an instance of the emphatic (existential) there.

Secondly, there are no 1st and 2nd person pronouns. The only exception is the “Testament”. Due to its character, it is natural that 1st person pronouns appear, such as I and my, but the level of formality is balanced by the use the passive voice, formal vocabulary and technical terms.

Thirdly, it is the frequent application of the passive voice, which is more or less noticeable in every document. Lawyers like to use passive structures. The passive voice is a linguistic construction that permits the writer to avoid naming or referring to the person or thing that performs the action. For instance, the sentence ‘The contract was breached’, simply states the fact. It does not indicate who was the wrongdoer who breached the contract. There are many instances of the use of passive structures, e.g. ‘shall be forthwith automatically terminated’, ‘may be reinstated and continued’, ‘to be observed and performed’, ‘may be rendered’, ‘prompt written notice be given’ and ‘indemnity is sought of”. Lawyers like to use passive structures to avoid directly referring to or identifying the person involved or assigning responsibilities. Because of this reason, lawyers tend to prefer the passive voice to the active voice where the doer needs to be identified and spelt out. Sometimes, lawyers overuse the passive voice for this reason. Even when the subject or doer of an action is known and identified, passive structures are still used, for instance, in the examples, ‘to be performed by Party A or Party B,’ and ‘which is intended by the Contract”.

The largest number of occurrences is in the Testament, the smallest number accounts for the Contract, probably due to the fact that the Contract is written in the present tense, it is abundant in the use of conditional and it is full of procedure, so the use of the active voice seems to be preferred by the drafter.

So, syntactic elements such as sentence complexity, passivization, modals are other aspects that a legal translator should know how to handle. Generally, he should be aware of the syntactic differences between English and Ukrainian. To handle syntactic complexities, the legal translator needs to understand the main constituent parts of the message, look for similar cases of translating the same structure. Syntactic adaptation is good solution for language incongruities. For instance, passivization in English is more likely to be translated into active in Ukrainian. Similarly, translation of modal auxiliaries is subject to many adaptations. Thus, the translator is entitled to figure out the different facets that a modal can be translated from and into a language.