CHAPTER 1 Legal Language and Prescriptive Legal Texts
1. Prescriptive v. descriptive legal texts
2. Legal language, legal systems
3. The specificities of prescriptive legal texts in English
CHAPTER 2 The Linguistic and Pragmatic Functions
1. Speech act theory,performativity and enactment
2. The communicative function and the pragmatic function of prescriptive legal texts
3. Vgueness v. precision
CHAPTER 3 Tense, Aspect and Modality in Prescriptive Legal Texts in English
1. Tense ,aspect and modality: introduction
2. The temporal dimension of prescriptive legal texts
CHAPTER 4 The 'World Data'Corpus
Criteria for selecting the 'World data'
CHAPTER 5 Verbal Constructions in Prescriptive Legal Texts
1. Verbal Constructions in prescriptive Legal Texts
2. Modals and semi-modals(shall/may/must/should/will/be to /would/can/could/……）
3. Mood
4. Indicative forms
5. Voice: Passive v. active form
6. Non-finite verbal constructions
7. Concluding remarks
CHAPTER 6 The Future of Legal Texts in English and possible effects on verbal constructions
1. The Plain Language Movement
2. Plain Language proposals for reforming legal texts
3. The specificities of prescriptive legal texts in English
4. The structure of prescriptive legal texts
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