Concerning the Formation of Legal Terminology

6Sergiusz Griniewicz | Concerning the Formation of Legal Terminology Concerning the Formation of Legal Terminology SergiuSz griniewicz University of Bialystok KEYWORDS: proto-terms, terminology forming, hyperonymy, semantic fields, synonymy INTRODUCTION In the vocabulary of every language there exists a layer between common words and terms consisting of so-called proto-terms. It is connected with the period of transition from pre-scientific to scientific stages of cognition and early stages of formation of scientific terminologies. Investigating proto-terms reveals main tendencies in emergence of termin ologies and evolution of mind. There are two approaches in exploring the formation of terminologies, which in reality is exploring the evolution of culture and human consciousness. The first one presupposes diachronic analysis of the quantitative and qualitative changes of the chosen terminology starting from the earliest lexeme. The second one involves a preliminary examination of the present structure and state of the chosen terminology which makes it possible to fully appreciate changes in its historical development. The first one enables fuller understanding of sometimes quite sudden and hardly comprehensible changes in word meanings that reflect changes in apprehension of notions while the second makes it possible to estimate the evolution of ideas on the basis of knowledge of its results. The present structure of ideas is revealed by establishing hyponymic (hierarchical) relations between their nominations. The choice of legal terminology is caused by its particular status. Law was one of the three specialties taught in the early universities: since for every man three most important aspects were his body, his soul and his property and safety. The importance of clear understanding and evading doubts in taking legal decisions cannot be overestimated. It reflects in the character of legal Terminologija | 2016 | 23 7 terminology – the tendency towards precision in defining legal concepts, which is usually characteristic for technical terminologies, concomitance with the requirement of clarity and understandability of meaning of legal terms; decisive role of legal terms in normative and governing documents. We may conclude that such documents as administrative or criminal codices in reality are collections of terms and their definitions. 1. COLLECTING WORDS NAMING THE NOTION “WITNESS” To explore formation of legal terminology we may take as an example the notion of witness. Nowadays this notion may be expressed by a number of synonyms that may be found in dictionaries of synonyms. As the initial source of our investigation we have chosen the Chambers SuperMini Thesaurus (CSMT 1998). It has the following merits: – it contains a substantial amount of lexical units (over 155,000 synonyms and antonyms); – this is a well-known publishing-house with a reputation for thoroughness and good quality of dictionaries; – this edition is quite recent and may be considered an authority on English today. As the starting point of our research we take the entry witness. It contains two groups of synonyms: 1. testifier, attestant, deponent (fml); 2. onlooker, eye-witness, looker-on, observer, spectator, viewer, watch er, bystander. The presence of the two groups of synonyms points to the fact that the chosen word “witness” is polysemic. Therefore it seems logical to turn to the definition of this word in the defining dictionaries with the aim of establishing the exact meanings of this term. In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD 2000) we find four meanings: 1. person who sees sth (also eye-witness) – a person who sees sth happen and is able to describe it to other people; 2. (in court of law) – a person who gives evidence in a court of law: a defence / prosecution witness; 3. (of signature) – a person who is present when an official document is signed and who also signs it to prove that they saw this happen; 8Sergiusz Griniewicz | Concerning the Formation of Legal Terminology 4. (of religious beliefs) – evidence of a person’s strong religious beliefs, that they show by what they say and do in public. In the Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (LDELC 1999) we find three definitions: • witness/1/. (also eyewitness) – someone who is present when some thing happens, especially a crime or an accident; • witness/2/. – someone who tells in a court of law what they saw happen, or what they know about a person; • witness/3/. – someone who is present at the writing of an official paper and signs it to show that they have seen the writer sign it. The seeming discrepancy comes from the fact that in the second dictionary only a person is considered. In the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (MWD 2004) we find five meanings: 1. testimony; 2. one that gives evidence; 3. one present at a transaction so as to be able to testify that it has taken place; 4. one who has personal knowledge or experience of something; 5. something serving as evidence of proof. We can view the discrepancy between presenting the same notion, or rather a set of related notions. The OALD defines this word as mainly denoting a person and omitting “testimony”, while the CSMT in the respective entry views it only as a person, though in the same dictionary in the entry “testimony” we find witness as one of the synonyms. The last thing may be viewed as inconsistency, because synonymic relations are reciprocal – if witness is a synonym of testimony, then in the entry “witness” should be presented the third group of synonyms with the meaning “testimony”. Also the order of presentation of synonyms is quite meaningful. According to the authors “the most important and relevant meanings first” (back cover), also “order from the most common to the least frequently used, or specialised” (Introduction) which could be added to the merits of this dictionary. In some dictionaries we have the alphabetic order, which seems to be quite useless because it does not show the difference between the most Terminologija | 2016 | 23 9 frequently used and most close synonyms and those that are obsolescent, coming out of use, are only partial synonyms or just related lexemes. It is curious that all of the words included in the first group of synonyms are not presented as entry words; they do not have their own entries in the CSMT. That may be seen as a drawback of the dictionary. In the case that these words were not included as entry words because they are seldom used (or are not important) this principle should be mentioned in the introduction, or they should have referring entries. Still we may guess that this dictionary which is rather small includes only common words, while in the first group we have terms. We concentrate, therefore, on the second group of synonyms. It is interesting to notice that almost all of them except the last one are based on the fact of viewing something. This is confirmed by the OALD which defines the first meaning of the word “witness” as “a person who sees sth happen and is able to describe it to other people”. Also indirectly it is confirmed by the absence of the word “ear-witness” which is present in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED 1989) – the largest dictionary of the English language (with the meaning “a person who testifies, or is able to testify, to something on the evidence of his own hearing”) and, therefore, belongs to the English vocabulary. Comparison of presentation of synonyms in the existing English dictionaries of synonyms in the last ten years revealed incompleteness of providing synonyms in their entries. For example, in the same dictionary (CSMT) the entry of the word to look contains 17 synonyms, while the analysis of entries of these synonyms resulted in finding 34 more synonyms of the word “to look” (twice as many) in the same dictionary. This is an extraordinary case, but the experience of investigating synonymy points to the fact that even in the largest dictionaries of synonyms not all synonyms are presented in the entries. To ensure completeness of collecting synonyms we have to analyse entries of the synonyms presented in the initial entry. The first of the synonyms of the word “witness” – onlooker – is, according to its position, the closest synonym of the word witness and has in its own entry the following synonyms: bystander, observer, spectator, looker-on, eye-witness, witness, watcher, viewer. The first thing that may be noticed here is the fact that all of the synonyms of the word onlooker are also included in the entry of “witness”. 1 0 Sergiusz Griniewicz | Concerning the Formation of Legal Terminology That points to the fact that those two entry words may have exactly the same meaning (which may be proved or disproved by comparing respective definitions in defining dictionaries). It is worth noting, in our opinion, that the word “looker-on”, which has, according to the OED, exactly the same meaning as the word onlooker, being a variant of the latter, does not begin the list of synonyms, but has fourth place. Should it be considered as breaking the rules established by the authors themselves? Perhaps it means that the word looker-on is seldom used which may be reflected in the fact that it is not present both in the MWD and in the OALD. The second of the synonyms – eye-witness – has in its entry in the dictionary the following synonyms: witness, observer, spectator, looker-on, onlooker, bystander, viewer, passer-by (it is convenient to underline new lexemes which are possible additional synonyms). As we have pointed out above, in the CSMT eye-witness is regarded not as a species of the notion witness, but rather as a variant (absolute synonym), and so the entries of the words witness and eye-witness should be exactly the same, with exception perhaps of the last word of the initial entry – bystander, which does not point explicitly to the faculty of viewing being used. However, according to the OALD, it has the meaning “a person who sees sth that is happening but is not involved”, so, in fact, it also is the synonym to the word eye-witness, and is quite justly presented in its entry. Nevertheless there is a difference (apart from the different order of presentation – which may prove to be quite important, showing the difference in usage and closeness of meaning) in an additional word passer-by which is missing in the initial entry and the absence of the word watcher. It should be mentioned, that apart from the rest of synonyms that presuppose viewing, witnessing something, bystander and passer-by do not necessarily mean witnessing, but rather involve the possibility of viewing something. Nevertheless they may be included into the analysed semantic field. The entry observer contains the following words: watcher, spectator, viewer, witness, looker-on, onlooker, eyewitness (a different form of the already presented synonym!), commentator, bystander, beholder. There are three new words here. Besides eyewitness which is a different form of the already presented synonym we have some completely new Terminologija | 2016 | 23 1 1 words. Beholder according to its meaning should have been placed in the initial entry, while commentator is quite different. There are no common synonyms in its entry with the initial entry “witness” and even the word observer is not presented there (?), so it is clearly quite outside of the semantic field “witness”. In many entries of synonyms we can find, apart from the same synonyms as in the first entry, two groups of words: – those that in our opinion should be included in the field and the first entry – sometimes their number being quite substantial as in the case of to look (CSMT) with additional synonyms supplied in the entries of its synonyms; – those that are quite different in meaning from the initial word. In the entries of the words spectator, viewer, watcher and bystander we did not find any new synonyms. In Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words & Phrases (RTEW 2002) witness does not have a separate entry, but is presented as a synonym in the entries evidence and record – which means that it is regarded rather as a material object, in the fourth meaning of OALD and the first and fifth meanings of the MWD. In the Oxford Paperback Thesaurus (OPT 2001) the entry witness contains the following synonyms: 1. observer, onlooker, eyewitness, spectator, viewer, watcher; bystander, passer-by; 2. evidence, indication, proof, testimony. It is quite clear that the word witness has two quite different meanings; the first group contains the already known words, but we may find some new words in their entries. Also it is interesting that although this dictionary is larger there are no new synonyms in the entry of the word witness. In the entry observer we find additional words fly-on-the-wall, rubberneck, beholder (which do not have their entries in the same dictionary); sightseer (which does not qualify as a synonym of witness); in the entry spectator – commentator, reporter, monitor (all of them not qualifying); in the entry watcher – a new word spy (not qualifying); in the entry bystander – a new word non-participant (not qualifying) and gawper /informal/ which may be added to the list of synonyms. 1 2 Sergiusz Griniewicz | Concerning the Formation of Legal Terminology The resulting list of synonyms of the word witness in the meaning of a person looks in the following way (in alphabetic order): attestant, beholder, bystander, deponent (fml); ear-witness, eyewitness, eye-witness, fly-on-the-wall, gawper, looker-on, observer, onlooker, passer-by, rubberneck, spectator, testifier, viewer, watcher – 18 lexemes. Further analysis of internet sources, such as the www.TheFreeDictionary. com and www.thesaurus.com and especially www.powerthesaurus.org reveal the existence of further synonyms of the chosen word, namely – attestator, attester, attestor, corroborator, gawker, gazer, ogler, passerby, peeper, perceiver, rubbernecker, seer, signatory, signer, voyer, witnesser – 16 additional lexemes. Checking their synonyms gives additional five words – earwitness, gaper, goggler, starer, voyeur. So as the final result we have 40 words that may be used to denote the notion witness (a person) and together constitute the respective semantic field. The majority of them are naming various types of witnesses. Some of these lexical forms are used as prototerms but also in everyday speech while some of them (such as attestant, deponent, testifier, signatory) are already terms. 2. ESTABLISHING HIERARCHICAL RELATIONS IN THE SEMANTIC FIELD “WITNESS” To establish the structure of the formed semantic field we classify the collected synonyms on the genus–species principle starting with those with the broadest meaning, dividing them into groups and subgroups down to the names of narrowest notions that form the lowest level of classification. To create such classification we start with collecting descriptions of the meanings of the chosen words, presented in defining dictionaries, such as LDELC, MWD, OED, www.TheFreeDictionary.com and www.powerthesaurus.org. While classifying notions we find that some notions have several names – in this way we reveal absolute (full) synonyms. At the same time some names have more than one meaning and are used to denote several notions. For example, the initial word witness has three meanings. Such cases in terminology we traditionally view as homonymy. We may also come across the hidden polysemy/homonymy often marked by using the conjunction or in the definition, i.e. starer – a person who looks steadily for a long time esp. in great surprise or shock; gaper – a person looking hard in Terminologija | 2016 | 23 1 3 surprise or wonder, especially with a mouth open or witness/2/ (in a court) someone who tells in a court of law what they saw happen, or what they know about a person – where definition in reality points to two different notions. In this case we are substituting such word by two words: starer/1/ – a person looking steadily in great surprise and starer/2/ – a person looking steadily in shock; gaper/1/ – a person looking hard in surprise, especially with a mouth open and gaper/2/ – a person looking hard in wonder, especially with a mouth open; witness/2/ (in a court) someone who tells in a court of law what they saw happen and witness/4/ (in a court) someone who tells in a court of law what they know about a person. We also find in the dictionaries information provided about variants of some words; such variation together with homonymy results in increasing the number of lexemes under investigation to 55. The preferable names for notions are marked by the bold type. Attestant/1/ – (law) a person who attests to the genuineness of a document or signature by adding their own signature, also = attestator = attestor attestant/2/ – someone who affirms or vouches for the correctness or truth or genuineness of something, also = attester Attestator > attestant/1/, attester = attestant/2/, attestor > attestant/1 beholder – a person who has seen an event happen, and so is able to describe it by-passer > passerby by-stander > bystander bystander – a nonparticipant spectator corroborator – someone who gives supporting evidence deponent – Law. one who testifies, especially in court: earwitness > ear-witness/1/ ear-witness/1/ – (legal) one who attests to things he has heard himself ear-witness/2/ – a person who has heard an event happen, and so is able to describe it eyewitness/1/ – (legal) one who saw the act or fact to which he testifies eyewitness/2/ – a person who has seen an event happen, and so is able to describe it eye-witness/1/ > eyewitness/1/ eye-witness/2/ > eyewitness/2/ fly on the wall > fly-on-the-wall fly-on-the-wall – a possible unnoticed witness gaper/1/ – a person looking hard in surprise, especially with a mouth open* gaper/2/ – a person looking hard in wonder, especially with a mouth open* gawker – a person looking at something in a foolish way 1 4 Sergiusz Griniewicz | Concerning the Formation of Legal Terminology gawkier > gawker gawper – a person looking at something in a foolish way, especially with a mouth open gazer – a person looking steadily, especially for a long time and often with admiration or pleasure and without being conscious of what he/she is doing goggler – a person looking hard with the eyes wide open, or moving around, usually in great surprise looker-on > an onlooker non-participant – f person who does not take part in something observer – someone who observes ogler – a person looking (at) with great interest, especially sexual onlooker – a person who watches something happening without taking part in it passer-by > passerby passerby (passer-by) – a person who (by chance) is walking, driving etc. past a place perceiver – a person, coming to knowledge of something through the senses rubberneck > rubbernecker rubbernecker – (informal, USA) someone who looks with great interest at something that has happened, especially someone who drives very slowly in order to look at an accident on a road signatory – any of the signers of an agreement, esp. among nations signer – someone who signs and is bound by a document spectator – a person who watches especially an event or sport without taking part starer/1/ – a person who looks steadily for a long time esp. in great surprise starer/2/ – a person who looks steadily for a long time esp. in shock starer/3/ – a viewer who gazes fixedly (often with hostility) swearer – someone who takes a solemn oath testifier – one who testifies, especially in court: viewer – a person who watches or is watching attentively, a close observer voyer > voyeur voyeur – a person who enjoys watching the private and especially unpleasant activities of others watcher – a person looking attentively* witness/1/ (potential) = someone who is present when something happens, especially a crime or an accident; witness/2/ – (in a court) someone who tells in a court of law what they saw happen; witness/3/ – (signing a document) someone who is present at the writing of an official paper and sings it to show that they have seen the writer sign it witness/4/ – (in a court) someone who tells in a court of law what they know about a person witnesser – who sees an event and reports what happened