IN DEPTH ANALYSES OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES SERVING AS HINDRANCES TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW

GRADUATION THESIS
B.A. DEGREE IN ENGLISH
Major: Legal English

IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES SERVING AS
HINDRANCES TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING

Supervisor: CAO ĐANG QUYNH TRAM, M.A.
Student:

NGUYEN NGOC HUYNH ANH

Student ID: 1652202010008
Class:

LE - 41
Ho Chi Minh City, 2020


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW

GRADUATION THESIS
B.A. DEGREE IN ENGLISH
Major: Legal English

IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES SERVING AS
HINDRANCES TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING

Supervisor:

CAO ĐANG QUYNH TRAM, M.A.

Student:

NGUYEN NGOC HUYNH ANH

Student ID:

1652202010008

Class:

LE – 41

Ho Chi Minh City, 2020


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Cao
Dang Quynh Tram for guidance and support in completing this dissertation. She taught
me professional standards and solved many dilemmas in the course of my research and
writing. Without her expert advice and encouragement throughout this difficult time, I
would not have been able to finish my thesis.
In addition, I wish to pay my special regards to my head teacher Le Thi Xuan Thu,
who helped me a lot in the process of writing the dissertation. Furthermore, I would like
to show my gratitude to Ho Chi Minh City University of Law and Legal Language
Faculty, which offered me the best opportunity of studying and working on this exciting

dissertation, which has been one of the most memorable experiences in my tertiary
education.
I whole-heartedly appreciate the great advice I received from all of my friends and
seniors on previous courses which has proved fundamental to the success of this study.
Especially, I wish to thank two of my friends Vo Minh Nga and Nguyen Ngoc Minh
Trang, whose assistance and encouragement has been a milestone in the completion of
this thesis. Simultaneously, I would also like to thank Le Thi Hoang Chau, who gave
me insightful comments and feedback on earlier drafts of this dissertation.
Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the support and great love of my
family, particularly my parents and my brother. Their spiritual support throughout my
life is a precious thing to which I am indebted. They kept me going and this dissertation
would not have been possible without their input.
Nguyen Ngoc Huynh Anh
May 25, 2020


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Adj

Adjective

Art

Article

Det

Determiner

e.g.

For example

etc.

Et cetera

i.e.

That is

LE

Legal English

N

Noun

Nom

Nominal

NP

Noun Phrase

O

Object

p.

Page

Prep

Preposition

PP

Prepositional Phrase

S

Subject

V

Verb

V3

Past Participle

VP

Verb Phrase

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 1
i. Background information.................................................................................................. 1
ii. Research objectives ........................................................................................................ 2
iii. Scope of the research .................................................................................................... 2
iv. Literature review…………………………………...…………………………………….2
v. Research questions ......................................................................................................... 4
vi. Research methodology .................................................................................................. 4
vii. Structure ...................................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER ONE: THE IMPORTANCE AND EFFECTS OF SYNTACTIC
STRUCTURES IN EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING ....................................................... 6
1. GENERAL THEORY OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN ENGLISH ................. 6
1.1. The concept of syntax .............................................................................................. 6
1.2. Specific syntactic structures in English .................................................................... 9
2. THE IMPORTANCE AND EFFECTS OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN
EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING ................................................................................. 12
3. THE NECESSITY OF READING LEGAL DOCUMENTS EFFICIENTLY ......... 15
CHAPTER TWO: IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF COMMON SYNTACTIC
STRUCTURES WHICH HINDER READING LEGAL DOCUMENTS EFFICIENTLY
............................................................................................................................................ 18
1. COMMON SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN LEGAL READING ........................ 18
1.1. Length and complexity. ......................................................................................... 18
1.2. Combinations of clauses ........................................................................................ 19
1.3. Unusual sentence structures ................................................................................... 19
1.4. Collocations ........................................................................................................... 20
1.5. Abundant use of the passive voice ......................................................................... 21
1.6. Conditionals and hypothetical formulations ........................................................... 22
1.7. Binomial expressions ........................................................................................... 233
1.8. Relative clauses ..................................................................................................... 24
1.9. Prepositional phrases ............................................................................................. 24

1.10. Nominalization .................................................................................................... 25
1.11. Separation of subject and verb ............................................................................. 26
1.12. The use of modal verbs ........................................................................................ 27
2. ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN CONTRACTS ........................ 277


CHAPTER THREE: THE COMMON DIFFICULTIES WHEN READING A LEGAL
DOCUMENT AND READING STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING STUDENTS’ LE
COMPREHENSION ......................................................................................................... 33
1. A HOLISTIC OVERVIEW OF DIFFICULTIES WHEN READING LEGAL
DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................................... 33
2. STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING COMPREHENSION IN LE READING ........ 37
2.1. Effective personal reading strategies ...................................................................... 37
2.1.1. Connect to a purpose .......................................................................................... 37
2.1.2. Preview the text .................................................................................................. 37
2.1.3. Skimming and scanning ...................................................................................... 38
2.1.4. Atmosphere is key .............................................................................................. 38
2.1.5. Resolve confusion before moving on .................................................................. 39
2.2. Institutional approaches ......................................................................................... 39
2.2.1. Aptitude tests and remedial classes ..................................................................... 39
2.2.2. Syllabus design: syntax and semantics ................................................................ 40
2.2.3. Syllabus design: reading levels…………………………...………………………40
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 42
References ........................................................................................................................... 44


IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES SERVING AS
HINDRANCES TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING

INTRODUCTION

i. Background information
Language is a vital tool in communication. Humans use language to communicate
with the purpose of understanding each other. These days, international integration
among countries is dramatically increasing, so the demand for people fluent in English
is also going up because English is used widely in many countries all over the world as
a means of communication. To be able to communicate in the English language, learners
need to consider two things: grammar and intelligibility. The most effective way to get
messages across is by using verbal language: speaking and writing. It seems that writing
is more difficult than speaking for people to understand since we cannot use body
language, emotions and intonation to communicate ideas in writing.
Language has four different aspects namely phonology (the study of sounds and
sound systems), morphology (the study of how morphemes are combined together into
words), syntax (the study of how words are combined together to form sentences) and
semantics (the study of meaning). As one aspect of linguistic analysis, the study of
syntax is fundamental to linguistics and language study. Syntax is one major component
of grammar as it governs the ways in which words are combined to form phrases,
clauses, and sentences. Therefore, syntactic structures play an important role in reading
comprehension. If readers do not have adequate knowledge of syntactic structures, they
may not fully understand the meaning of the text (Fitri and Maisrul, 2011).
To reach an effective reading level in English as the second language is not easy,
so readers need ample time to practice improving this skill. Reading general English is
difficult but reading specialized English is more difficult. Legal writing is a particularly
specialized form of English but as the governance of society has become more
sophisticated, so law has become an essential part of life. Simultaneously, legal English
(LE) has become vital in business, diplomacy, IT and many other aspects of modern life
that require international transactions in which English has become the Lingua Franca.
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HINDRANCES TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING
Thus, legal reading comprehension in English is an important skill, and knowing about
syntactic structures is a big advantage in legal reading. Therefore, this thesis will analyze
the ways in which syntactic structures may serve as hindrances to effective reading,
with the aim of helping law students and general readers improve comprehension
capability in legal texts.
ii. Research objectives
This dissertation aims to:
a) Identify important syntactic structures that affect reader’s capability in legal
reading;
b) To access students’ attitudes towards grammar and syntax while reading;
c) Suggest some reading tips to increase efficiency in legal reading.
iii. Scope of the research
This research focuses on language and syntactic structures commonly found in
contracts and other legal documents including labor contracts, company charters, supply
of services agreements, sales agreements, etc. found in civil law because this is the
branch of the law where international transactions are most common in Vietnam.
Criminal law poses a separate range of cultural problems and has been excluded to keep
the research project to a manageable size.
In that respect the research objectives are extremely important in defining the scope
of the research which is based on a study of people working in the legal field and
students studying in the English Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Law
(LE students) but is intended to benefit people working in the wider legal professions,
law students, business people and the general public.
iv. Literature review
Regarding syntactic structures, there are many relevant books and articles. A
ground breaking work was Chomsky (1957). His overview of syntactic structures had a
major impact on the study of knowledge, mind and mental processes, coming to be
known as the single most influential work in the formation of the field of cognitive
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IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES SERVING AS
HINDRANCES TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING
science. In his work, Chomsky established the independence of syntax (the study of
sentence structures) from semantics (the study of meaning). Recently, linguists and
language teachers have begun to pay increasing attention to the effects of varied syntax
on the reading comprehension skills of second language learners. Huggins (2007) is an
influential recent study of the “Syntactic aspects of reading comprehension”. In this
work, syntax is seen as a tool for adjusting the complexity and compactness of a message
to achieve the best balance between economy and clarity, taking into account the level
of competence and processing ability of the perceiver. At the same time, the research
reviewed constantly points up the importance of meaning, and its interaction with
syntax.
Turning to the specific syntactic structures commonly found in LE, there are also
numerous related materials. However, researchers have tended to concentrate on
grammar in legal language. Tiersma (1999) has proved particularly influential. This
book aims to provide a relatively comprehensive description of legal English, including
how it got to be the way that it is, its present characteristics, how lawyers use language
in the courtroom, and the movement to reform it. The major theme running through the
book is how well legal language functions as a means of communication. Besides
Tiersma’s work, the study by Chovanec (2013) has also played a significant role in
setting the foundation for further research into syntactic structures in legal texts. More
recent studies, of varying quality, have tending to focus on the structure and influence
of particular syntactical features of LE. For example, Khairy and Hussein (2012) looked
at binomial expressions, Kalinowski (2015) studied lawyers use of prepositional phrases
and Shiflett (2017) investigated the passive which she misleadingly refers to as the
passive tense.
There are a number of studies of difficulties facing students of English for
academic purposes including LE. One strand of the literature looks at translation. Alcarz

Varo and Hughes (2002) is a useful general introduction to the difficulties students and
legal practitioners may encounter. Among more detailed studies those involving Arabic
as the L1, such as Al-Tameemi (2016) tend to predominate. These are useful in that they
point out the difficulties which may arise with terminology from legal systems with
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different underlying philosophies. A second strand of the literature deals specifically
with reading comprehension difficulties. In this area much important work has been
done by Christensen (2007, 2010). He focused on the relationship between reading
comprehension skills and success in law school demonstrating that high levels or
reading comprehension ability are a strong predictor of success. However, it should be
noted that much of the follow up work such as McCallum et al (2017) has been carried
out in western countries. It should be noted that there is as yet no study of either
translation or reading comprehension difficulties in LE encountered in Vietnamese law
schools.
There is a huge literature on reading strategies for learners of English as a second
language in general but very little specific to LE and nothing specific to LE among
students whose L1 is Vietnamese. This thesis aims to begin filling these gaps by posing
the following research questions.
v. Research questions
- Whether syntactic structures play an important role in effective legal reading?
- Whether there are specific types of syntactic structures which hinder reading
comprehension in contracts and other legal texts and why?
- Whether there are practical strategies that can help readers, both law students and the
general public, understand legal documents more easily and accurately?
vi. Research methodology
The overall approach to the research is qualitative. In particular, this dissertation

gathers information about legal reading experiences, emotions and behaviors of readers
from legal materials and books using both primary and secondary sources. It assists in
gaining a better understanding of complex concepts, social interactions and cultural
phenomena by using the following main methods:
-

Oral history or life stories: informal interviews were carried out in the
spring of 2020 with the writer’s classmates (N=30), face to face or by
smartphone. The aim was to pinpoint difficult syntactic structures that served as
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hindrances in their legal reading and strategies they have tried to overcome them.
Notes were taken during these interviews but lack of equipment, disruption due
to Covid-19 and lack of time to make transcripts, unfortunately, meant that the
interviews could not be recorded or transcribed. However, based on the author’s
notes and recollections, basic thematic analysis was carried out. The findings will
be presented in Chapter 2 and a discussion and conclusions will follow in Chapter
3.
-

Document analysis method: Publicly available corpuses and examples of
contracts, sales agreements and other legal documents were located which
yielded suitable terms and provisions for syntactic and morphological analysis to
illustrate the difficulties in legal reading because of those syntactic structures.

-

Synthesizing theory method: Secondary research material was gathered
about the concept of syntax, types of syntactic structures in LE and common
difficulties in legal reading was taken from the academic resources described in
the literature review (iv).

vii. Structure
The rest of this thesis consists of three chapters. They are:
Chapter 1: The importance and effects of syntactic structures in effective legal
reading.
Chapter 2: In-depth analyses of common syntactic structures which hinder reading
legal documents efficiently.
Chapter 3: The common difficulties when reading a legal document and reading
strategies for improving students’ LE comprehension.

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CHAPTER ONE: THE IMPORTANCE AND EFFECTS OF
SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN EFFECTIVE LEGAL
READING
1. GENERAL THEORY OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN ENGLISH
1.1. The concept of syntax
In linguistics, “syntax” refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words
combine to form phrases, clauses and sentences. In particular, syntax has to do with
how words are put together to build phrases, with how phrases are put together to build
clauses or bigger phrases, and with how clauses are put together to build sentences
(Miller, 2008). In daily life, syntax is naturally used by humans. In small and familiar

situations, people can communicate by using single words combined with many
gestures, especially when dealing with other members of the same social grouping.
Nevertheless, sometimes people need to convey complex messages or ideas in
complex situations to others. Thus, complicated structures are required and differently
constructed in every language through devices such as phrases and clauses. The goal
of studying syntax is to acquire and use a language naturally (Anderson, 2007). It can
be seen that the distinction between speaking and writing is crucial and affects the
study of syntax. Many kinds of spoken language have a syntax that is very different
from the syntax of formal writing. In other words, the way to form sentences and use
words creates the discrepancy between spoken and written language.
There are various types of syntax in English. By rearranging just one word in the
sentence, a varied syntax is formed, which is grammatically correct and acceptable
English language form. For instance, “the girl luckily passed the exam” has the same
meaning as “luckily, the girl passed the exam”. These two sentences have the same
meaning, but they are syntactically different. Therefore, people often vary sentence
syntax to make their writing more interesting and attractive. Obviously, there are many
different types of syntax in English. Here are some common sentence structures that
most English learners know: simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence,
compound-complex sentence. Using different sentence structures is a way for writers to
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express creativity and arouse interest, but a balance of words in the sentence must be
parallel to be grammatically correct.
Syntax is a set of rules in a language. It dictates how words from different parts of
speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought. Therefore, syntax and
diction are closely related. Diction refers to the choice of words in a particular situation,
while syntax determines how the chosen words are used to form a sentence. Thus,

adopting a complex diction means accepting a complex syntactic structure of sentence,
and vice versa. In literature, syntax plays an important role, especially in poetry and
prose. Syntax and diction help writers develop tone, mood, and atmosphere in a text
since one of the main functions of syntax is to convey meaning using language and
syntax which is often informal, varied and idiomatic. Just as this unique syntax in poetry
and prose creates specific issues for readers, so does the unique syntax of LE where
creativity and emotion are rarely important and idioms are frowned upon. It is all about
precision and word order can change the meaning of a complex term completely.
In linguistics, syntax is not just the study of grammar, instead, it’s the study of how
real language is structured, and aims to understand the rules that govern which sentences
are valid and how these sentences are constructed. In communication, we choose the
words we need to put together to express concepts and ideas. There are hundreds of
thousands of words to choose from, and an infinite number of possible sentences, but
there are only a small number of ways in which words can be combined. This is because
sentences have certain structures. There is a fixed order of word categories, rather than
a fixed order for particular words themselves. For instance, we have determiner, noun,
tense, verb, preposition, etc. Therefore, the study of syntax looks at the ways in which
the word categories can be ordered and combined. Here is one example from All About
Linguistics, n.d.):
The

cat

will

hide

in









Determiner

Noun

Tense

Verb

7

the

box







Preposition

Determiner

Noun


IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES SERVING AS
HINDRANCES TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING
Syntax is a form of grammar, and English is a language in which the most common
structure is known as SVO. That is subject, verb and object. For example, “the cats wash
their paws” is the correct word order. There also has to be agreement between the forms
of the words which is not required in Vietnamese. Knowing at least the basic
grammatical rules and sufficient vocabulary to fit into the syntactical structures you
know, helps you to communicate effectively. This is especially true of written
communication. As with all communication codes, grammar depends on consistency. It
depends upon writers and readers being aware of the same rules, which are always
applied. If the writers ignore grammatical code rules, the readers may misunderstand the
meaning of the texts. Because English has been shaped over many centuries by a variety
of linguistic influences (in particular, Greek and Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman
French), the code rules of English grammar sometimes seem baffling and inconsistent.
To understand the difficulties student’s face in LE reading it is crucial to understand that
most everyday words and syntax in English are of Germanic or Norman French origin.
However, from the Renaissance onwards a huge number of additional words were
created from Greek, Latin and, occasionally, Arabic roots in order to express new
academic, scientific and, not least, legal concepts. Almost all TEFL courses and text
books concentrate on everyday vocabulary of Germanic or Norman French origin in the
early stages. But many students then struggle with the transition to academic vocabulary
of Greek and Roman origin. More and more textbooks and teachers are focusing on the
morphology of these words, prefixes, roots and suffixes in an attempt to overcome the
resulting reading difficulties but, as will be shown in Chapters 2 and 3, this is important
but not sufficient and student’s syntactically awareness also needs to be raised. This is
because by understanding how sentences in English are structured, we can avoid some

of the more common grammatical errors. Therefore, the syntactic properties of a
language enable easy communication between different parties. Listeners can
understand the sentences constructed by speakers. Lack of awareness of syntactic
properties creates some difficulties in understanding and speaking, which in turn causes
insufficient communication and ineffective reading.

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1.2. Specific syntactic structures in English
In English grammar, sentence structure is the arrangement of words, phrases, and
clauses in a sentence. The grammatical function or meaning of a sentence is dependent
on this structural organization, which is also called syntax or syntactic structure.
The most common word order in everyday English sentences is Subject-VerbObject (SVO). When reading a sentence, we generally expect the first noun to be the
subject and the second noun to be the object. Although sentences may comprise
numerous parts it is essential to remember that the foundation is always the subject and
the predicate. The subject is defined as a word or phrase that functions as a noun whereas
the predicate is at least a verb and in most cases includes one or more objects and
modifiers of that verb (Nordquist, 2019).
In traditional grammar, the four basic types of sentence structures are the simple
sentence, the compound sentence, the complex sentence, and the compound-complex
sentence. Simple sentence contains a single and independent clause. For example, “I
love dogs” is a simple sentence. Compound sentences contain two independent clauses
that are joined by a coordinating conjunction. The most common coordinating
conjunctions are: but, or, and, so. For instance, “I love dogs, but my friend hates dogs”.
Meanwhile, complex sentences contain an independent clause plus one or more
dependent clauses. A dependent clause starts with a subordinating conjunction such as
that, because, while, although, where, if. For example, “I love dogs because they are

smart and friendly”. Finally, compound-complex sentence contains three or more
clauses (of which at least two are independent and one is dependent). For instance, “I
love cats and my brother loves dogs because they are loyal animals.”
According to Fitry and Maisrul (2011), there are four types of syntactic structure.
Firstly, structures of modification consist of two immediate constituents: a head and a
modifier (e.g. Lovely cat). Secondly, structures of predication consist of two immediate
constituents: a subject and predicate (e.g. The cat loves eating fish). Thirdly, structures
of complementation consist of two immediate constituents: a verbal element and a
complement (e.g. The cat caught and ate the fish). Finally, structures of coordination
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consist of two or more immediate constituents which are equivalent units joined in a
structure which functions as a single unit (e.g. I bought the cat a doll and a teddy bear)
(Fitri and Maisrul, 2011).
Syntactic structures in English are diverse and complicated. Regarding English
sentence structure, there are lots of problems of which English learners need to have a
good grasp such as tenses (simple present tense, present progressive tense, simple past
tense, past progressive tense, present perfect tense, past perfect tense, future tense, etc.),
relative clauses, passive sentences, conditional sentences, modal auxiliaries, adverbs of
frequency, wh-questions, adverbials of place and time, noun phrases, etc. To be able to
write a complete correct sentence, English learners also need to know the rules
governing correct use of articles, quantity expressions, possessives, demonstratives,
subordinators, conjunctions, and so on. Chapter 2 will examine primary and secondary
evidence to determine which of these syntactic structures cause particular problems in
the comprehension of LE.
In linguistics, sentence structures are usually analyzed in the form of syntax tree
diagrams, to create a visual representation of syntactic structures. There are symbols that

are used as abbreviations for syntactic categories. Examples are “S” (= sentence), “NP”
(= noun phrase), “N” (= noun), “Art” (= article), “V” (= verb) and “VP” (= verb phrase),
“PP” (= prepositional phrase).

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Figure 1 shows some examples of tree diagrams:

Figure 1: Examples of syntactic tree diagrams ( />
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2. THE IMPORTANCE AND EFFECTS OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN
EFFECTIVE LEGAL READING
It can not be denied that syntactic structures play an important role in effective legal
reading. To understand the meaning of a sentence that the writer wants to convey,
readers have to understand the grammar as well as the vocabulary of that sentence.
Therefore, if someone wants to learn a language, the first thing they have to learn is
grammar of that language. One of several skills required for reading comprehension is
the concentration on syntactic aspects or competence. It has been shown that there is a
link between syntactic skills and reading comprehension (Morvay, 2012). Thus, there
are also differences between poor and good comprehenders as defined by standardised
international reading tests such as IELTS or TOLES or Independent Reading inventories
(IRIs). Poor reading comprehension may be the result of general deficiency in linguistic
knowledge, or, more precisely, on insufficient syntactic abilities.

Some recent investigations have also focused on the syntactic knowledge that
foreign language readers bring to the reading process and how such knowledge
influences comprehension. Bernhardt (2003), for example, hypothesized that syntax
would be a key variable in predicting foreign language reading comprehension. Because
of the flexibility in word order, readers can not merely rely on word meaning for
comprehension, but they must understand the signaling relationships between and
among words. However, Bernhardt’s conclusion begs the question of the role of
syntactic assumptions readers bring from their own L1, in the case of this study
Vietnamese. Chapter 3 will present some preliminary conclusions from research at Ho
Chi Minh City University of Law into the effects that some specific differences in
syntactical structures in Vietnamese and English have on students reading
comprehension.
However, to understand legal language is another problem. Legal language is seen
as a specialized register, which is a functionally differentiated variety of language used
in certain professional contexts. As such, it can be described in terms of its conventional
lexicogrammatical features (Chovanec, 2013, p.1). Although the concept of legal
language covers a very broad range of different legal discourses, these particular legal
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discourses will be described with respect to their typical grammatical features. This
description will be followed by an account of the trend toward the simplification of legal
language at the level of syntax, which has, over the past few decades, increasingly
affected the ways in which legal documents have been drafted. In addition, grammar has
another role in the law: it can be the actual bone of contention in disputes over the
interpretation of complex legal language and, importantly, also as forensic evidence
(Chovanec, 2013, p.1).
In general, legal texts written in English speaking countries such as legislation and

contracts are extremely detailed and explicit. This raises the question of whether the
syntactic structures used in a particular context or discourse community are culture
specific. English is a relatively low context language from a low context culture in which
things are spelt out clearly. Most Asian cultures and languages, including Vietnamese,
are relatively high context languages in which much is assumed. In high context cultures
legislation and contracts are often merely a vague starting point for negotiations rather
than being prescriptive in detail (Hall, 1989). This can be challenging for LE students
and has important implications for the use of skimming and scanning techniques in
reading which will be explored in Chapters 2 and 3.
In the meantime it is a fact established by the study of corpora that LE texts
will reuse the same lexical items because such consistency meets the requirement for
accuracy of legal language such as the use of complex adverbs of the herein-type, which
are rarely found in other registers or in everyday language. These adverbs are composed
of two elements, whose meaning is compositional: the pronoun here or there and one or
two relevant prepositions. However, legal documents also follow the rules of written
grammar and are probably the most removed from the syntax of spoken conversation.
One legal sentence typically consists of many clauses which would be formulated as a
sequence of independent sentences in non-legal contexts. These sentences are usually
very long. In the past, a whole document could even be constructed from a single,
unpunctuated sentence (Chovanec, 2013, p.1). Therefore, if readers do not have a basic
knowledge about syntactic structures, reading any material or document in a foreign
language will become very difficult. Having a good grasp of syntactic structures is
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therefore an advantage for readers. When reading a book or an article in LE, readers
have to pay special attention to word order (for example, in embedded clauses), parts of
speech (such as pronouns), and special uses of words, all of which affect the meaning

of a sentence or passage.
There can be no doubt that syntactic complexity is an important factor in reducing
comprehension and thus in assessing either the readability of texts or the reading
proficiency of students (Von Glaserfeld, 1971). We can see that the effects of syntactic
structures in comprehension are quite significant in any material. Many researchers have
investigated the syntactic abilities of poor readers. Recently several investigations have
raised the possibility that poor readers' limitations may include other components of
language processing. For example, it has been found that poor readers fail to
comprehend complex spoken sentences accurately in some circumstances. These
findings have led some researchers to question whether poor readers have mastered all
of the complex syntactic properties of the adult grammatical system. Young poor readers
are unable to comprehend certain syntactic structures as well as good readers because
poor readers are considered to be developmentally delayed in the acquisition of syntactic
knowledge (Smith et al, 2019).
A clue to understanding the role of syntactic awareness in reading may lie in its
association with reading fluency and vocabulary development. Automatic syntactic
processing and recognition of phrasing are among skill components needed for reading
fluency (Park and Warschauer, 2016). With regard to vocabulary development, syntactic
awareness not only closely relates to the form-meaning mapping, but it also assists in
identifying grammatical functions of a word in text (Nagy and Scott, 2016, p.269-284).
Besides, improved syntactic awareness through reading second language can be
beneficial for students to enhance their writing skills in the second language because
proficient writers tend to have more linguistic knowledge, including complex syntactic
knowledge derived from reading exposure than less-proficient writers (Crossley, 2020).
Thus, if readers are able to enhance syntactic awareness while reading, this knowledge
can also serve as a valuable linguistic resource along the way as they develop writing
skills. For this reason, developing syntactic processing skills, particularly strong
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knowledge of the syntax, is really neccessary for students who want to master a foreign
language. Deep understanding of the relationship between syntactic knowledge and
meaning construction is a basic foundation to become a good reader of legal documents.
3. THE NECESSITY OF READING LEGAL DOCUMENTS EFFICIENTLY
People are frequently asked to sign contracts and other legal documents that are
meant to bind them to specific rules and law students need to prepare for careers as their
advisers. But does the average citizen really understand what they are signing?
Therefore, reading legal documents is a necessary skill that everyone should have.
Although it can be difficult to understand the meaning of a legal document because of
the type of words used, the way the document is set out or the style of language used,
we have to understand them to protect our legal interests as consumers and employees,
for example.
Several reasons have been suggested why legal documents are written in ways that
make them so difficult to read. Suchan and Scott (1986) noted that in order to draft a
contract that is acceptable to both labor and management, the parties have to
compromise, which often requires the use of vague language and complicated sentences.
Furthermore, negotiators are probably accustomed to using “legalese”, which creates
difficulties and challenges for readers to understand. Nevertheless, these days there is
pressure from consumer rights organizations among others to use plain language in
legal documents to ensure contracts and other legal documents understood by the
individuals making the commitments (PEC, 2020). Notably, the types of documents that
people might be expected to sign without employing an attorney are significant (e.g. car
rental/lease, bank loan, auto insurance, employment contact, etc.), so the demand for
understandable legal documents is increasing dramatically. From that point, the question
“how to read legal documents efficiently?” is put by many people.
Lawyers sometimes use legal words, phrases and language that are not easy to
understand. They may also use Latin words and phrases. Therefore, the first things
readers should learn to read legal documents effectively are legal terminology, legal

phrases and Latin words.
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Some examples of legal words cited by NSW Communities and Justice (2017)
include:
Legal words

Meaning

Wherein

During which

Herein

In or inside here

Therein

In there

Shall

Must

Hereinafter

In a following part of this document,
statement, or book

Forthwith

At once, immediately

Some examples of legal phrases from the same source include:
Legal phrases
Breach of contract

Meaning
Where one person fails to meet the
obligations set out in a contract.

Cause of action

A reason someone can sue someone else.

Joint and several liability

Two or more people responsible for
paying a debt in full, both individually
and together.

Some examples of Latin words also taken from NSW Communities and Justice
(2017) include:
Latin words

Meaning

Inter alia

Among other things

Bona fide

Authentic, genuine

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IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES SERVING AS
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Ipso facto

A certain effect is a direct consequence of
an action

Ultra vires

Beyond what someone is authorised to do

Legal documents play a crucial role in all court cases as well as transactions such
as rental agreements, sale agreements, and so on. These transactions happen everyday
in our life. Therefore, the necessity of understanding legal documents can not be denied.
Everyone should have basic skills in reading legal documents to understand and execute
the law as well as protect individual legal interests.

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IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES SERVING AS
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CHAPTER TWO: IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF COMMON
SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES WHICH HINDER READING
LEGAL DOCUMENTS EFFICIENTLY
1. COMMON SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES IN LEGAL READING
Legal language is a specialized language of legal norms and related discourse. Its
distinctiveness may be seen in a number of characteristics that differentiate it from the
language of ordinary use. When describing the typical features of legal English,
Tiersma (1999, p.51-57) gave the following list: lengthy and complex sentences,
unusual sentence structures, wordiness and redundancy, conjoined phrases, frequent
use of negation and impersonal constructions. In addition, prepositional phrases,
passive constructions and conditional sentences are commonly used in legal English.
Furthermore, the language of law, its words, syntactic structures and concepts are
closely related to the legal system which it describes.
1.1. Length and complexity
One of the difficulties in legal English is the peculiarity of its morphology and
syntax. The fact that the sentences in English legal texts are very long and complex
causes particular problems and is of increasing concern to governments seeking to
empower their citizens. As Canada Department of Justice (2020) point out readers use
both short and long-term memory to process the meaning of what they read.
The difficulty posed by a complex sentence is that it strains the limits of short-term
memory and often requires a reader to reread the sentence several times in order
to understand it. Readers need breaks in the progression of ideas so that they can
consolidate what they have read and then move on. In fact, the process of
rereading is one of breaking the sentence into more manageable units from which

meaning can be more readily extracted.
But interviews conducted for this research shows that Vietnamese law students do not
always have the skills to do this.

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1.2. Combinations of clauses
One striking feature of legal language is the way in which words are combined into
phrases, clauses, and sentences. Legal syntax is distinctly idiosyncratic in terms of both
the structure and arrangement of the principal sentence elements (Hiltunen, 1984, p.41).
Syntactic properties of sentences in legal texts are sentence length, clausal structure of
sentences and subordinate clauses. Firstly, sentence length is a proxy for the level of
complexity in a text. The way sentences are constructed syntactically is crucial with
regard to their information structure and LE uses all four sentence types identified in
Chapter 1. However, considering the unconditional requirements of legal texts in terms
of precision, avoidance of ambiguity, and detail it is to be expected that simple and
compound sentences will be in a minority. Thirdly, the way in which qualifying relative
clauses and adverbial clauses are organized in syntactic patterns of subordination within
the sentence constitutes a significant characteristic of legal syntax (Hiltunen, 1984,
p.44).
1.3. Unusual sentence structures
Legal documents tend to have very long sentences with redundancy clauses. One
of the common reasons for the texts being difficult to read includes unsual sentences.
Studies show that sentences in legal language are quite a bit longer than in other styles,
and also have more embeddings, making them more complex. Moreover, lawyers make
use of unusual sentence structures, as in “a proposal to effect with the society an
assurance”, which is taken from an insurance contract. These unusual structures often

result in separating the subject from the verb, or splitting the verb complex, which can
reduce comprehension (Tiersma, 1999, p.65). When a verb (V) is followed by both a
prepositional phrase (PP) and noun phrase (NP), the common word order in modern
English is for the noun phrase to come first: V – NP – PP, as in “a proposal to effect an
assurance with the society”. However, legal language often uses the order: V – PP – NP,
as the above example shows.
Two linguists Crystal and Davy cited by Tiersma (1999, p.65) have shown that in
written legal texts, abverbials often precede a participle (E.g. herein contained,
hereinbefore reserved). Even though “herein” and “hereinbefore” can hardly be
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