From Law to Language: Exploring the Colligation 0f Prepositions in Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act 1973 Aisha Rehman
Abstract
This study explores the colligation of prepositions in the legal Act of Pakistan Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act 1973. Legal language is characterized by having a complex language, specialized vocabulary, and frequent use of prepositions which makes a legal document difficult to comprehend. The research identifies three combinations of colligation of prepositions which are Verb + preposition, Noun
+ Preposition, Adjective + Preposition in the Act. A quantitative content analysis methodology is applied to this research to investigate the frequency of Colligation of Prepositions patterns in the legal Act by using MS Excel. The result shows that Verb + Preposition and Noun + Preposition combination were predominating by constituting 45.45 % whereas Adjective + Preposition was less frequent by 9.09%. The study highlights that legal drafter conveyed legal roles and responsibilities effectively by the usage of colligation of prepositions. The study contributes both to the field of Law and Linguistics and recommends that in the legal curriculum linguistics should also be included so that while drafting a legal document with the help of linguistics it will be effective as it will be understood by the legal professionals and the layman
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