Linguistic Variations in Legal Language: A Corpus Based Study of the Judgments of AJK High Court

Abstract

This study aims to present a corpus based analysis of the linguistic patterns commonly found in the legal corpora with special reference to the judgments of the High Court of Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The data are collected from the official website of the High Court of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (Henceforth AJK) by downloading sixteen judgments pertaining to various civil cases. Corpus software LancsBox is used for the analysis of data. The study shows that the High Court of AJK follows a set of distinct and unique linguistic patterns in its judgments which include the use of archaic terms, referring expressions, Latin words and specific legal expressions. Likewise, the study illustrates that the use of legal terminology in the court judgments makes it declarative, commanding, and authoritative that makes a strong impression with respect to its linguistic variations. The use of Latin words, antiquated terms and obsolete words has been very frequent in the court orders. On the basis of findings of this study it may be concluded that the legal language of AJK High Court shows specific linguistic variations thus is exclusive, unique and distinct as compared to ordinary language.