Textual Analysis of Legal Language Document 2.
The genre is of a last will and testament legal document. The audience is implied at other legal people and the family and trustees after the death of Jonathon Moores. The subject is of his last will and testament and who he bequeaths his possessions to. The purpose is to ensure that all his possessions are dealt with in the way he wanted them to be after his death.
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There are several features of lexis that are typical of the style of legalese. Firstly, the archaic language, that has been used within the text. For example, the archaic preposition "hereby." This has been used in order to avoid legal loopholes and stop ambiguity. However, it has the effect of making the text more difficult to understand, therefore requiring a shared frame of reference from other legal workers to interpret this to modern English. In addition to this, they have avoided the use of the pronoun so as to avoid ambiguity and make it absolutely clear as to what Jonathon Moores has intended. There has been a lot of field specific lexis used so as to make it less likely for legal loopholes to occur and make it clear for other legal workers. It also, has been used due to tradition yet also makes the text harder to understand for the average person in which case it becomes jargon. This can be seen by "hereby revoke." Lexis is also nearly always subject specific. Modal auxiliary verbs have been used such as shall, so that there is a degree of certainty which makes the decisions more definite.
As well as the archaic language and field specific lexis, formulaic phrasing has been used, such as, "hereinafter", which is also an example of archaic language and creates a ceremonial tone. .
Within grammar, punctuation is limited and is used sparingly so as to cause less ambiguity. Full stops are mainly only used at the end of sections. This is traditional and typical of legal documents.
