Lesson Eleven
Commercial and Legal Texts
Business Letter
• Dear Sirs,
– With reference to your letter of 27th October, in
which you ask us to consider some revision in
our existing arrangements with regard to
commission, we inform you that we find it
difficult to allow an increased commission on
our goods.
Business letter (cont.)
– We quite appreciate that it is difficult for you to win
business against German and American competitors
who are firmly established in your market, but our
prices are very low and if we allow you an increased
commission, the very small margin of profit on which
the running of this business is based would be entirely
absorbed.
– We are, however, prepared to give you financial help to
cover advertising costs. We trust the above offer will be
of interest to you.
Business Letter (cont.)
– However, for further talks about this matter, we
would like to advise you that Mr. J.M. of this
company will be visiting Italy about the first
week in December. We should be pleased to
know whether you will be interested in
discussing with him all the aspects of the
problem and whether you would be available
for a meeting at the beginning of December.
– We look forward to your reply.
– Yours faithfully
English/Italian
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With reference to your letter
In riferimento alla Sua lettera
established in the market
affermate sul mercato
We trust the above offer will be of interest
Riteniamo che possa interessarLe
We would like to advise you
Siamo lieti di comunicarLe
We should be pleased to know…
Voglia gentilmente farci sapere…
We look forward to your reply
In attesa di una Sua sollecita risposta
English/Italian
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I feel I must point out…
Faccio notare che…
A meeting will be held…
Si terrà una riunione…
Our company is planning to expand
La nostra società intende espandersi
Please let us know if you require further info
Se avete bisogno di ulteriori info, fatecelo sapere
Italian/English
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Vi trasmettiamo in allegato…
Please find included
Vogliate cortesemente inviarci il Vs. catalogo
Would you be so kind as to send us your catalogue
I nuovi prezzi entrano in vigore…
The new prices come into force…
Siamo disposti a soddisfare la Vostra richiesta
We are ready to meet your request.
Lei/Voi in English?
• Conditionals
– I should be very grateful…
– I wonder if you would be so kind as to…
– Dear Sir/Madam
– Yours faithfully/sincerely
Legal language
• Particular use of lexis/grammar/style.
• No mistakes (in translation) are acceptable.
• statement of defence/replica del convenuto
Conditional clauses
• IF/SHOULD/WHERE
• QUALORA/DOVESSE/LADDOVE
Present (perfect) tenses
• Considering that all countries share a
responsibility…
• Where a party which makes extradition
conditional…
• Each party which has made bribery an
offence…
• BUT
Deontic ‘shall’
• Upon receipt of any order by the agent for goods
the said agent shall immediately transmit the
above mentioned order…
• The bribery of a public official shall be punishable
by….
• The following shall be prohibited as incompatible
with the common market
Repetition
• No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the publishers.
Impersonal
• In accordance with Article 3, sub-section
(d), clause 13a…
Lexis (obsolete)
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whereas/permesso che
whereby/per cui
thereby/a causa di ciò
henceforth/d’ora in avanti
hereinafter(d’ora in poi/ai sensi di (contract))
hereto/qui
in witness thereof/in fede di ciò
the aforesaid/di cui sopra
Legal lexis
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to sue/citare, fare causa
warrant/ingiunzione, mandato
summons/mandato di comparizione
binding/vincolante
to lay down/formulare
pertaining to/in riferimento a
Formulaic expressions
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given that/dato che
in the event of/nel caso di
it is hereby certified/certifica
I, the undersigned/Il sottoscritto
ordinary care and skill/diligenza del buon padre di
famiglia
• without let or hindrance/senza impedimento
• malice aforethought/premeditazione
Lexical collocations
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to claim damages/chiedere risarcimento
to draft a bill/redigere un progetto di legge
rights and privileges/diritti
aid and abet/essere complice
death duties/tasse di successione
Terms found in Agatha Christie
and (in)correct translations
Inspector/Ispettore
Constable/Agente
Chief Constable/Ispettore Capo (Capo di polizia)
Superintendent/Sovrintendente (Commissario)
Detective Inspector/Ispettore di polizia
Detective Sergeant/Sergente
will/testamento
perjury/falso testimonianza
British/American/Italian
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Barrister
Solicitor
Attorney
Public prosecutor
Avvocato
Notaio
Pubblico ministero
Forensic Linguistics
• ‘The law is very much a language subject’.
• (Malcolm Coulthard)
• “Let him have it, Chris.”
The Bentley Trial
• Bentley’s statements contained many time
markers, particularly ‘then’, and also in post
position.
• “Then someone in a garden shone a torch up at
us.”
• “The policeman and I then went round the
corner”.
• This use of ‘then’ appears typical of police reports.
Bentley
• The statements/interrogations also
contained many negatives.
• “I didn’t know he was going to use the gun”
• Not logical as an answer to a question.
• The statements and the interrogations were
too similar, suggesting police created
interviews from text.
Corpus figures
• Corpora show that ‘then’ is infrequent in
spoken narrative, and post position ‘then’
VERY infrequent.
• Many more negatives in text than in corpus.
Indicators of veracity and deception
FBI analysis
Linguistic and stuctural features of criminal
statements.
Veracity – unique sensory details
Deception – excess length of prologue
(also equivocation, negation)
Veracity – unique sensory details
A woman claimed to have been abducted.
She reported some implausible events.
BUT she described the smell of motor oil on
the assailant’s hands.
Deception – length of prologue
Prologue:
My husband and I were sitting in
the first booth on the right as you
come into the restaurant.
Incident:
I heard a loud bang like a
firecracker and shouts to lay down on
the floor and I knew the restaurant was
being robbed. I saw two men with ski
masks. The taller man had a rifle or a
shotgun.
Epilogue:
After they left, we stayed under the
table until the police came.
(if prologue longer than incident – chance of deception)
Unabomber
• Linguistic fingerprinting (idiolect)
• Co-selection of terms:
• 3m documents contained words used
• Only 69 contained all the words together!
Beware!
• The computer can now detect student
plagiarism.
• Three random essays shared 13 terms.
• Suspect essays shared 74 terms!