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PASAA

Publication Date

2016-07-01

Abstract

While corpus linguistics has been applied towards many specific academic purposes, reports are few regarding its use to facilitate learning of legal English by non-native English speakers. Specialized corpora are required because legal English often differs significantly from ordinary usage, with words such as bar, motion, and hearing having completely different meanings and use. This paper documents the process of creating and validating a sixteen million-word corpus of (American) legal English, and provides examples of analyses available for language learners. Written decisions and oral argument transcripts from the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts were ultimately chosen to comprise the corpus due to their authentic and comprehensive use of legal jargon. Overall, this corpus demonstrates that appellate court decisions, available online, can comprise a corpus tailored for legal English learning.

DOI

10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.52.1.9

First Page

237

Last Page

254

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