Verbal Constructions in Prescriptive Texts
Introduction Most people manage to get through life without ever acquiring a de- tailed knowledge of the laws which regulate their daily lives. The spe- cialized knowledge of such matters is essentially the domain of the so- called legal professions, constituted mainly by lawyers and judges who are crucially involved in the job of interpreting the laws and regulations that have been drafted. Interpreting the intention of the lawmakers and those who drafted a particular law inevitably entails a detailed scrutiny of the language used. It could be a question of defining the boundaries of given lexical items. For example, in recent years there has been much discussion within the European Union as to which ingredients may or may not be included in the production of chocolate. At which point does chocolate legally cease to be chocolate and have to be labelled – by law – as something else? The so-called EU Chocolate Directive in force since August 2003 lays down specific criteria as to how terms such as ‘chocolate’, ‘milk chocolate’ and ‘cocoa powder’ must be used, as well as allowing a maximum of five per cent of non-cocoa vegetable fats to be used – a measure contested by a number of choco- late-producing companies that consider the inclusion of such fats as conflicting with the ‘essence’ of what chocolate is meant to be. The mere absence of a definite article in an expression can give rise to heated and prolonged interpretative debate. For example, the famous United Nations Security Council Resolution...
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