Legal Doublets

Transcript:

Hello.

Modern English words derive from many different languages. English as we know it today consists of approximately 29% of words which originate from Latin, 29% of French words, 26% of Germanic and Anglo-Saxon words, and about 16% of words from other languages. This means that today we have many different synonyms in English of different origins. An example of this could be “freedom” and “liberty” where freedom comes from the German “freiheit” and liberty comes from the French “liberté”. We also have two words like “brotherhood” and “fraternity” which mean exactly the same thing with brotherhood coming form the German “bruderschaft” and fraternity coming from the French “fraternité”.

This phenomenon is even more evident in Legal English. In Legal English we have what we call Legal Doublets.

Now, a Legal Doublet is a standardized phrase frequently used in Legal English consisting of two or more words that are near synonyms (sinonimi quasi del tutto simili), usually connected by the word “and”. There are two important things for you to know. First of all, Legal Doublets keep the same order, so we say “null and void”. We don’t say “void and null” (come dire: “due e tutti” anziché “tutti e due”), and very often we have a one word equivalent for a Legal Doublet, so “null and void” could become “void”.

Very commonly used Legal Doublets that we use today in English are:

To make our lives even more interesting, we also have what we call Legal Triplets. Commonly used Legal Triplets that we see in English today still include:

Thank you for joining me and I hope to see you next week for more Peter’s Pills to improve your Legal English.

Legal English – Sommario delle Lezioni

• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 55 – Golden expressions
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 54 – Pre-emption right vs Right of first refusal
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 53 – What do we mean by “agent” of a company?
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 52 – Voting at a meeting
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 51 – Contracts vs Deeds
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 50 – Executive and Non-Executive Directors
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 49 – Transfer of shares vs transmission of shares
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 48 – They, them, their for singular nouns
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 47 – Jointly and severally
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 46 – Invoice words
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 45 – Quotation
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 44 – Gazumping and Gazundering
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 43 – English words that the English do not understand
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 42 – Easement vs Profit à prendre
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 41 -er, -or and -ee names
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 40 – The Objects Clause
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 39 – When is Latin hot, and when is it not?
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 38 – Default
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 37 – Company Agent
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 36 – Injunction (false freind)
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 35 – Mortgage
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 34 – Freehold, Leasehold and Commonhold estates
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 33 – Transferor, Transferee and Transmittee
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 32 – Tax evasion, tax mitigation and tax avoidance
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 31 – Numbers
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 30 – Ordinary resolutions vs special resolutions
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 29 – AGM vs EGM
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 28 – A going concern
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 27 – Collocations: Violate, breach, break, disobey and infringe
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 26 – Company meeting words
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 25 – Mortgagor vs Mortgagee
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 24 – Fixed charges vs Floating charges
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 23 – Doctrine
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 22 – Construe
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 21 – Sign vs Execute
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 20 – The closing statement
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 19 – Writing Business Emails
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 18 – Limited companies
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 17 – Annual Accounts
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 16 – Meetings
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 15 – Attorney-at-law vs Attorney-in-fact
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 14 – Here and there compounds
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 13 – Subject Matter
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 12 – The clear days rule
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 11 – Shareholder, Member or Holder of shares?
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 10 – Competition Law
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 9 – Lasting Power of Attorney
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 8 – Guardianship
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 7 – Damage vs Damages
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 6 – Legal Doublets

Peter Liebenberg

Peter Liebenberg è uno specialista nella formazione delle persone nella conoscenza della lingua inglese. Ha creato molti corsi nel campo dell’inglese per professionisti, tra cui English for banking, English for business e English for Insurance, ma ha sempre avuto un debole per l’inglese legale. Altri corsi che ha creato comprendono Phrasal Verbs I e II. Quando Peter non fa formazione, corre a Parco Sempione, crea arte nel suo studio sulla Martesana e fa volontariato.