Selected Linguistic Elements of Identification of the Identity in Korean Legal Documents
Selected Linguistic Elements of Identification of the Identity in Korean Legal Documents

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to introduce the issues of identifying of the party’s identity in legal discourse in Korean legal reality. To this end, the available legal documents – both collected by the author and generally available on e.g. the websites of Korean courts as well as presidential ordinances – were analyzed. It turns out that not only identifying the party's identity can cause linguistic problems - this affects the understanding of the entire text. In turn, it is an element that has not been fully analyzed due to its common acceptance and not being included in a pragmatic context, while it is an element that provides a good start to the relation, the proper understanding of the message (here: the text) and the cultural background context. To present this, names of the parties were analyzed, Asian abbreviations used instead of the legal names of the parties, their identity expressed by their registration numbers and finally also signatures and seals. It appeared that the identity is especially important in the case of Asian cultures which for those who lack cultural knowledge are a proverbial minefield, and specialized languages (here: legalese and the law language) refer to culture to a greater extent than can be noticed at first glance.

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