LAW AS LINGUISTIC PHENOMENON: PERFORMATIVE FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE

Abstract

The paper discusses law as a linguistic phenomenon by focusing on the performative function of legal language. In the introduction the notion of language, as well as the variety of its possible functions are explained by referring to the theories of such scholars as Roman Jakobson and John Langshaw Austin. The introduction is concluded with a very brief presentation of legal language characteristics and the way it can be perceived as a performative speech act. Subsequently, materials and methods used in the course of this analysis are listed. The study focuses mainly on real life examples of utterances expressed during chosen adoption hearings in American courts. The specific communicative situations have been chosen due to their complex emotional and legal character as an example to illustrate how certain seemingly identical statements may be of completely different functions. After the examples are compared and discussed, authors’ conclusions are presented and the initially posed question of whether or not legal utterances can be deemed as performatives is answered and justified.

Keywords

• performatives
• legal language
• language functions