Deontic Modality in a Legal Text An Attempt at a Comparative Analysis on the Example of the Construction with the Modal Verb shall + Infinitive in the English Version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Its Counterparts in the German... Cover Image

Modalność deontyczna w tekście prawnym Próba analizy porównawczej na przykładzie konstrukcji z czasownikiem modalnym shall + bezokolicznik w angielskiej wersji Powszechnej Deklaracji Praw Człowieka i jej odpowiedników w wersji niemieckiej...
Deontic Modality in a Legal Text An Attempt at a Comparative Analysis on the Example of the Construction with the Modal Verb shall + Infinitive in the English Version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Its Counterparts in the German...

Author(s): Patrycja Montusiewicz
Subject(s): International Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Morphology, Lexis, Comparative Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: deontic modality; legal text; comparative analysis;

Summary/Abstract: In her article, Patrycja Montusiewicz examines constructions with the modal verb shall + infinitive in the English version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its German, Dutch and Polish versions. She has adopted the semantic category of deontic modality in a legal text the tertium comparationis. This comparative study shows the degree to which the analyzed text type is coded with the help of modal signals. Montusiewicz identifies factors independent of the type of text and requiring the use of modal forms depending on the internal nature of the grammatical system. Her main research method is, therefore, a structural and functional analysis based on the hypothesis of categorial convergence when coding the appropriate grammatical functions by units belonging to different layers of the language systems. Her research has shown that the selection of an appropriate equivalent for the expression of deontic modality is not determined by the formal similarity of the source and target language units.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 9
  • Page Range: 1-16
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish