Zu syntaktischen Aspekten der deutschen Rechtssprache im Vergleich mit der polnischen Rechtssprache
Syntactic aspects of German legal language in comparison with Polish

Summary/Abstract: The paper contains an analysis of syntactic aspects of German legal language and a comparison with its Polish counterpart. The object of detailed examination are parallel texts in both languages: the analysis concerns chapters pertinent to general partnerships in commercial law in codification of both legal systems. Since the institution of general partnership is regulated by German and Polish law in a similar way, a comparison was possible at the syntactic level. The results of the study revealed that the syntax of legal texts in the German language can be characterized by the presence of complex sentences, which often contain inserted parenthetical relative clauses. Abundant are also nominal forms and passive voice or passive voice equivalents, as well as infinitival sentences with “zu”. In the Polish legal language we can observe dominance of longer simple sentences, and complex sentences often – like in the German legal language – contain inserted parenthetical relative clauses and impersonal forms. The presented analysis shows that both legal languages, German and Polish, reveal the use of similar syntactic structures.

• Details
• Contents