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The Use of Nominalizations in Legal Language

Exploring the Role, Benefits, and Challenges of Nominalizations in Legal Writing

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Key Takeaways

  • Condensation of Complex Ideas: Nominalizations condense multifaceted actions into singular concepts, enhancing the formality of legal documents.
  • Formality and Objectivity: They maintain a formal tone and impartiality, which are essential in legal discourse.
  • Readability and Clarity Challenges: Excessive use can lead to wordiness and reduced clarity, necessitating a balanced approach.

Introduction

Nominalizations, the transformation of verbs or adjectives into nouns, play a pivotal role in shaping the distinctive style of legal language. This linguistic phenomenon is ubiquitous in legal documents, ranging from contracts and statutes to judicial opinions and legal briefs. Understanding the use and impact of nominalizations is crucial for legal practitioners aiming to achieve clarity, precision, and formality in their writing. This comprehensive analysis delves into the functions, advantages, challenges, and best practices associated with nominalizations in legal language.


Functions and Purposes of Nominalizations in Legal Language

Condensation and Clarity

Nominalizations serve as a tool to condense complex ideas or sequences of actions into singular, abstract concepts. This condensation allows legal writers to present detailed processes succinctly, ensuring that documents remain comprehensive yet not overly verbose. For instance, the sentence "The implementation of the policy resulted in a decrease in violations" is more concise than "We implemented the policy, which caused violations to decrease."

Formality and Objectivity

Maintaining a formal tone is paramount in legal writing, and nominalizations contribute significantly to this objective. By focusing on actions in an impersonal manner, nominalizations help in creating an objective narrative that emphasizes the legal concepts over individual actors. For example, "The termination of the contract was executed due to a breach" is more formal and less accusatory than "We terminated the contract because you breached it."

Abstract Concepts

Legal language often grapples with abstract principles and broad concepts. Nominalizations enable the articulation of these abstract ideas more effectively by providing precise terminology that encapsulates specific legal notions. Terms like "compliance," "remediation," and "entitlement" allow legal writers to discuss complex ideas without anchoring them to specific instances, thereby facilitating broader legal discourse.


Characteristics and Examples

Complex Nominal Phrases

Legal documents frequently employ complex nominal phrases that are heavily postmodified. These phrases can make sentences more detailed but also more intricate. For example, "No obliteration, interlineations, or other alterations made in any will after the execution thereof shall be valid or have effect" exemplifies how multiple nominalizations work together to convey precise legal stipulations.

Replacement of Verbs

Nominalizations often replace active verbs with noun forms, leading to less direct and more abstract sentences. For instance, "The committee will conduct an investigation of the allegations" is less direct than "The committee will investigate the allegations." This replacement can result in sentences that are more formal but also more cumbersome.


Advantages of Using Nominalizations

  • Enhanced Specificity: Nominalizations provide specific terminology that encapsulates intricate legal statutes, rights, obligations, and procedures, making legal texts more precise.
  • Formal Tone Maintenance: They help sustain the formal and authoritative tone characteristic of legal documents, reinforcing the seriousness and binding nature of the content.
  • Facilitation of Comprehensive Provisions: By allowing the consolidation of multiple actions or conditions into single terms, nominalizations enable the drafting of comprehensive legal provisions without excessive verbosity.

Challenges and Criticisms

Wordiness and Lack of Clarity

Overuse of nominalizations can lead to unnecessarily wordy and convoluted sentences, diluting the clarity and strength of the legal argument. For example, "The defendant’s decision not to testify" is less clear and impactful than "The defendant decided not to testify." This wordiness can obscure the intended meaning and make legal documents harder to understand.

Reduced Readability

Nominalizations can create a more abstract and less engaging writing style, which may reduce the overall readability of legal texts. This abstraction can make the documents less accessible, especially to laypersons who may not be familiar with the specialized terminology, thus limiting transparency and comprehension.

Passive Constructions

Nominalizations often lead to passive sentence structures, which can obscure who is responsible for an action. For instance, "An analysis of the data was conducted" does not clearly state who conducted the analysis. This lack of clarity regarding agency can lead to ambiguities in legal obligations and responsibilities.


Balancing Nominalizations in Legal Writing

Effective legal writing necessitates a balanced approach to the use of nominalizations. While they offer significant benefits in terms of formality and precision, their overuse can compromise the clarity and accessibility of legal documents. To achieve this balance, legal writers can adopt several strategies:

  • Selective Use: Employ nominalizations where they enhance precision and formality but avoid them when they unnecessarily complicate the text.
  • Active Voice Preference: Favor active constructions over nominalized forms to promote clarity and directness. For example, use "The court decides" instead of "The decision of the court."
  • Simplification: Where possible, use verbs instead of nominalizations to make sentences more concise and easier to understand. Replace "provide clarification of" with "clarify."
  • Audience Consideration: Tailor the use of nominalizations based on the intended readership, ensuring that specialized terms are used appropriately without alienating non-expert readers.

Modern Perspectives and Recommendations

In recent years, there has been a significant push towards plain legal English, advocating for reduced use of nominalizations to enhance clarity and accessibility. Legal writing experts like Bryan Garner have emphasized that eliminating unnecessary nominalizations can make legal arguments more vivid and direct. However, traditionalists argue for the preservation of nominalizations due to their deep-rooted presence in legal precedent and the formal tone they convey.

Legal writing workshops and editing guides often include lists of common nominalizations along with their verb counterparts, encouraging writers to replace nominalized phrases with more direct language. For instance, "make a motion" can be simplified to "move," and "undertake an investigation" can be reduced to "investigate."

The balance between maintaining the formal integrity of legal language and ensuring clarity for diverse audiences continues to be a central focus in legal writing education and practice. As legal documents strive to be both precise and accessible, the strategic use of nominalizations remains a critical skill for legal professionals.


Examples of Nominalizations and Efficient Alternatives

Nominalized Phrase Efficient Alternative
Provision of resources Providing resources
Implementation of policies Implementing policies
Undertake the representation of Represent
Conduct an analysis Analyze
Make a recommendation Recommend

Impact on Legal Writing

The pervasive use of nominalizations in legal writing significantly shapes the style and readability of legal documents. While they contribute to a formal and authoritative tone, their impact extends to the structural aspects of legal texts. Nominalizations facilitate the embedding of clauses and conditions within sentences, supporting the layered and hierarchical nature of legal documents. However, this also makes sentences longer and more complex, which can be a barrier to quick comprehension.

Legal education emphasizes the importance of mastering the use of nominalizations, teaching students to recognize when their use enhances or hinders clarity. Editing for nominalization involves identifying and converting noun phrases back into their original verb forms, thereby promoting more active and direct sentences. This skill is essential for legal professionals who aim to produce clear, concise, and effective legal documents.


Conclusion

Nominalizations are a fundamental aspect of legal language, serving to enhance formality, precision, and the abstraction of legal concepts. They enable legal writers to condense complex ideas and maintain an objective tone, which are crucial in legal discourse. However, the overuse of nominalizations can lead to wordiness, reduced readability, and obscured agency, which can hinder the clarity and effectiveness of legal communication.

Balancing the benefits and drawbacks of nominalizations requires deliberate and strategic use. Legal writers must selectively employ nominalizations to maintain the necessary formality and precision while avoiding unnecessary complexity and ensuring that their documents remain accessible and comprehensible to their intended audiences. Embracing the principles of plain legal English and continually refining writing practices can help legal professionals achieve this balance, leading to more effective and reader-friendly legal documents.


References


Last updated January 16, 2025
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