Legal language as a marker of professional identityAccording to the Finnish constitution, Finland has two national languages, Finnish and Swedish. Thus all laws exist in Finnish and Swedish, both language versions being... [ view full abstract ]
Legal language as a marker of professional identity
According to the Finnish constitution, Finland has two national languages, Finnish and Swedish. Thus all laws exist in Finnish and Swedish, both language versions being legally equivalent. In practice laws are drafted in Finnish and translated into Swedish. As a result, the Swedish legal language in Finland is strongly affected by the drafting language Finnish. At the same time it should follow the same linguistic norms as the legal Swedish in Sweden and in the EU (the thought of one legal Swedish), institutionalized norms on plain language, as well as live up to demands of a traditional legal language.
This norm complexity has been addressed in earlier studies (Nordman 2009, 2014). There is, however, one factor that has been neglected in studies about the linguistics of the Swedish legal language; that is its role as a professional identity marker. Language as social identity, as a shared repertoire by which you gain acceptance in a community of practice (Wenger 1998, Barton & Hamilton 1998,Garzone & Archibald 2010) as it is adopted by students of law, future lawyers. I will discuss this role as identity marker as one of the main reasons why the legal Swedish remains linguistically conservative. The acquisition of a legal register as a professional identity marker is adapted by students of law from the first year they enter the university (student, 22 years, responds to a discussion to a legal text written 1940:”but the language is so beautiful – this IS legal Swedish, why should we write in any other way"). This raises questions on choice of register and code-switching imbued with social meaning.
The data analyzed is threefold: 1. Two survey case studies with students of law at the University of Helsinki (N=12, N=22), 2. Personal discussions with students of law during the course Legal Swedish, which I have taught since 2011, and 3. Personal communication since 2010 with legal professionals at government institutions translating the Finnish law.
Barton & Hamilton 1998. Local Literacies. Routledge.
Garzone & Archibald (eds.). Discourse, Identities and Roles in Specialised Communication. 2010. Peter Lang.
