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• 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

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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 Christieand (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

• 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!