简单的语言就是如此:对美国联邦法律随着时间的推移的可访问性进行分析
Eric Martínez1, Francis Mollica2, Edward Gibson1
1Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
Journal of experimental psychology. General
|April 22, 2024
概括
50多年来,政府试图简化法律语言的努力失败了. 一项大型研究发现,法律仍然很复杂,这表明了普通语言运动.
科学领域:
- 语言分析语言分析.
- 法律研究 法律研究
- 计算语言学计算语言学
背景情况:
- 在过去的50年里,美国政府试图简化法律文件以使公众能够理解.
- 这些倡议被统称为"简单语言运动".
- 没有系统的评估来评估这些简化努力的有效性.
研究的目的:
- 系统地评估普通语言运动在简化美国联邦立法方面的有效性.
- 与当代英语文本相比,分析法律中的语言复杂性.
主要方法:
- 对大约2.25亿个单词进行了大规模的纵向语料库分析.
- 将国会通过的每一项法律与四个基准类型的英语文本样本进行了比较.
- 分析了美国代码与六个基线类型的最近发表的文本样本.
主要成果:
- 与基础英语文本相比,法律具有显著的心理语言复杂性 (例如,中心嵌入,被动语音,术语,长句).
- 法律中这些复杂性特征的普遍性,自从简单语言倡议的开始以来,并没有大幅度下降.
- 从上到下的简化努力在很大程度上是无效的.
结论:
- 尽管50年来一直在努力使用简单的语言,但美国的法律仍然在语言上复杂,难以被普通人理解.
- 联邦立法中的简单语言运动的有效性是可疑的.
- 这就质疑了假定法律易于被公众解释的法律学说.
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