LEXICAL EVALUATION OF LEGAL TEXT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

The present study is a lexical evaluation of Pakistani legal documents in comparison with international legal documents. The objectives of the study are to quantify the lexical features of legal documents. We selected six legal documents as sample; two court judgements, two agreements and two international treaties. Descriptive quantitative research methodology was applied to measure the llexical features of written legal discourse. The focus of the study was to evaluate the documents at Lexical level. The lexical category was further divided into linguistic features and every feature was quantified using frequency as information analysis tool to deal with discreet data. This analysis was presented through charts and tables. The findings revealed that the repetition and over use of certain linguistic features i.e. synonymy, legal jargons and foreign words are the hallmark of legal documents. These linguistic features should be dealt carefully while teaching English as foreign language to yield better results in improving reading comprehensibility of an educated layman, professional lawyers and the students of law.