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Article published In:
Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 14:2 (2023) ► pp.285–300

Pluricentric legal Chinese

A Rethink on harmonization and uniformization of legal terminology

ORCID logo | The Chinese University of Hong Kong
ORCID logo | International University of Monaco

Chinese is the language of legislation and of court and administrative procedures in several jurisdictions as well as in numerous international organizations. Its legal status differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and displays its pluricentric character. Legal acts that are issued in these jurisdictions demonstrate therefore different levels of terminological formation and other legal-linguistically relevant varieties. It is the task of legal lexicography to register lexical varieties of legal Chinese in the relevant jurisdictions. However, in addition to all lexicological and lexicographical efforts, the question could be asked whether terminological harmonization constitutes the appropriate answer to problems caused by pluricentric Chinese legal terminology. It could be claimed that the task of legal linguists is not only to research but also to shape the Chinese legal language. There exist, in fact, examples of such activities that will be closely scrutinized in this article.

Keywords: linguistic pluricentrism, legal lexicography, harmonization of legal terminology, language planning, legal language, legal Chinese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Underlying conceptual issues
    • 2.1Legal hybridity and legal culture
    • 2.2Legal-linguistic methodology in pluricentric jurisdictions
  • 3.Some possible tasks for legal linguists
    • 3.1Shaping basic terminology
    • 3.2Developing lexicological taxonomy
    • 3.3Recommendations
  • 4.Trends and limitations
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
Published online: 14 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.21013.cha
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