A Contrastive Linguistic Analysis of Legal Language of Contracts in Both English and Arabic Languages

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the semantic and syntactical traits that concern legal contract writing of both English and Arabic languages. It is a contrastive study that analyzed some syntactical and semantic similarities and differences between legal language of contracts of both languages English and Arabic. The study adopted the descriptive analytical method to analyze the data. The research materials are four samples of legal contracts two of them in Arabic language and the others in English on which data analysis were conducted in accordance with some semantic and syntactic elements. The study arrived at important results which can briefly be stated as exemplified in following points: there are semantic and syntactic similarities between legal language of contracts in both English and Arabic; such as limitations in syntax and synonyms in semantic the semantic differences are less than the syntactic ones. The study moreover concluded in some recommendations and suggestions for further studies through which legal people and student of law follow up with ongoing changes in the field of legal language of contracts of both English and Arabic languages in terms of structure and meaning.