Table Of ContentRoutledge Research in Language and Communication
THE IMPACT OF PLAIN
LANGUAGE ON LEGAL ENGLISH
IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Christopher Williams
The Impact of Plain Language on Legal
English in the United Kingdom
This volume offers insights into the ways in which plain language has
infuenced the language of the law in the United Kingdom, critically
refecting on its historical development and future directions.
The book opens with an overview of the theoretical frameworks
underpinning plain language and a brief history of plain language
initiatives as a foundation from which to outline ongoing debates on the
opportunities and challenges of using plain language in the legal domain.
The volume details strands where plain language has had considerable
impact thus far on legal English in the UK, notably in legislative drafting,
but it also explores areas in which plain language has made fewer
inroads, such as the language of court judgments and that of online
terms and conditions. The book looks ahead to unpack highly topical
areas within the plain language debate, including the question of design
and visualisation and the ramifcations of digitalisation, contributing to
ongoing conversations on the importance of plain language both in the
UK and beyond.
This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars
interested in the intersection of language and the law as well as related
disciplinary areas such as applied linguistics and English for specifc
purposes.
Christopher Williams retired in 2018 as Full Professor of English at the
Law Department of the University of Foggia after a university career of
44 years. His research has focused mainly on legal English, particularly
with reference to plain language. He is chief editor of the journal ESP
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The Impact of Plain Language on Legal English in the United Kingdom
Christopher Williams
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www .routledge
.com /Routledge -Research -in -Language -and -Communication /book -series /
RRLC
The Impact of Plain Language
on Legal English in the United
Kingdom
Christopher Williams
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Taylor & Francis
The right of Christopher Williams to be identifed as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 9780367457297 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032309224 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003025009 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003025009
Typeset in Sabon
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
List of fgures vi
Foreword ix
1 Contextualising plain language 1
2 A history of plain language in the legal sphere in the
United Kingdom 26
3 The language of legislation 61
4 The language of court judgments 93
5 The language of online terms and conditions 136
6 Visualising the future 178
Index 199
Figures
1.1 Extract from a comic contract devised by Robert de
Rooy. Reproduced by permission 15
3.1 Average sentence length of the 1970 legislative corpus
and the 2020 legislative corpus 69
3.2 Frequency of pro-forms in the 1970 legislative corpus
and the 2020 legislative corpus 70
3.3 Frequency of pronominal adverbs in the 1970
legislative corpus 73
3.4 Frequency of the fve most common pronominal
adverbs in the 1970 legislative corpus compared with
the 2020 legislative corpus 73
3.5 Frequency of male/female pronouns in the 1970
legislative corpus and the 2020 legislative corpus 77
3.6 Percentages of actives and passives in the 1970
legislative corpus and the 2020 legislative corpus 82
4.1 Number of words in the Judgespeak 1970 corpus and
in the Judgespeak 2020 corpus 107
4.2 Average sentence length in the Judgespeak 1970 corpus
and in the Judgespeak 2020 corpus 109
4.3 Average length of civil judgments and criminal
judgments in the 1970s and in 2020 in terms of
number of words 110
4.4 Frequency of pronominal adverbs in the Judgespeak
1970 corpus and in the Judgespeak 2020 corpus 113
4.5 Percentages of actives and passives in the 1970 corpus
and in the 2020 corpus 114
4.6 Distribution of fnite verbal constructions in the 1970
corpus and in the 2020 corpus 115
4.7 Frequency of Latinisms in the 1970 corpus and in the
2020 corpus 118
Figures vii
4.8 Frequency of frst person pronouns and adjectives in
the Judgespeak 1970 corpus and in the Judgespeak
2020 corpus 119
4.9 Frequency of titular nouns in the Judgespeak 1970
corpus and in the Judgespeak 2020 corpus 121
4.10 Frequency of “learned” in the Judgespeak 1970
corpus and in the Judgespeak 2020 corpus 122
5.1 Number of words per sentence in the six subcorpora
of online T&C texts 148
5.2 Dima Yarovinsky’s I Agree project. Reproduced by
permission 149
5.3 Number of occurrences of aforesaid, the said, and
the foregoing in the T&C corpus 150
5.4 Number of occurrences of pronominal adverbs in the
T&C corpus 151
5.5 Number of occurrences of gender-related terms in the
T&C corpus 152
5.6 Total number of occurrences of fnite verbal
constructions in the T&C corpus 154
5.7 Number of occurrences of fnite verbal constructions
in each of the six T&C subcorpora 155
5.8 Frequency of fnite verbal constructions (the smaller
the number the greater the frequency) 156
5.9 Active/passive ratio in the three corpora 157
5.10 The frequency of frst and second personal pronouns
in the T&C corpus 162
5.11 The frequency of possessive adjectives in the frst and
second person in the T&C corpus 162
5.12 The frequency of the three most common contractions
in the T&C corpus 166
6.1 Illustration and text from the frst edition (pp. 18–19)
of The Highway Code 1931 published by the
Ministry of Transport (London). Courtesy of Nicky
Hughes 180
6.2 An excerpt from the Shell marine division contract.
Reproduced by permission 184
6.3 Extract from a T&C text by Liftshare created by
Visual Legals. Reproduced by permission 185
6.4 Timeline in a contract by Buzzsumo. Reproduced by
permission from Buzzsumo and Stefania Passera 186
viii Figures
6.5 Frequency of the expressions “plain language” and
“plain English” in British English from 1970 to
2019 according to Google Books NGram Viewer
(6 November 2021) 191
Foreword
This book is the result of a long-standing interest of mine in plain language
in the legal sphere, an interest which emerged as a result of my research as a
linguist. After graduating in modern languages in 1974 at the Polytechnic of
Central London, I spent my working life teaching English in southern Italy,
frst at the University of Bari, then at the Law Department of the University
of Foggia, until my retirement in 2018. During those 44 years my interest in
English was a constant, and over the years my research increasingly focused
on legal English, especially in relation to plain language. Paradoxically,
given that research is meant to be one of the most important aspects of
work for a university professor, I found in my last few years before retiring
that I had less and less time to devote to research, as administrative and
bureaucratic commitments seemed to increase by the week. So it was only
after retiring that I could fnd the time and leisure to write the book I had
had in mind for several years.
I have tried to write this volume in a way that I hope will arouse curiosity
in readers who may have little or no expertise in plain language, or in legal
matters, or in linguistics. The risk is that of disappointing readers who do
have expertise in those areas. Those well versed in plain language matters
may fnd that I digress too often into areas that may not seem to be strictly
related to the topic; legal experts may fnd my approach at times naïve; and
language scholars may fnd some of the linguistic points I raise as being
too simplistic and lacking in technical detail. Given that this volume is
about plain language, I have tried wherever possible to write in a way that
is accessible to non-experts. Legal issues are inherently complex and often
very boring except to specialists, so there is a limit to how far you can go in
making them comprehensible or palatable to everyone. For some perverse
reason, I continue to be fascinated by legal English, and I hope to persuade
a few readers that it is far less dreary than they might imagine!
As the representative for Italy for the last 15 years or so for “Clarity,” the
association which promotes “plain legal language to engage and empower
citizens around the world” (www .clarity -international .org/), I write as an
advocate of plain language in the legal sphere. That said, I have attempted
to be as objective as possible in my analysis of how plain language has
