«Law's 'Way of Words:' Pragmatics and Textualist Error»

Harold Anthony Lloyd
«Law's 'Way of Words:' Pragmatics and Textualist Error»
Creighton Law Review

Creighton Law Review | Creighton University | Creighton University School of Law | Omaha | ESTADOS UNIDOS


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Harold Anthony Lloyd

Law’s “Way of Words:” Pragmatics and Textualist Error

I. Introduction

II. “Pragmatics” Defined

III. Discourse and Text Pragmatics

A. Message Construction and Reconstruction

1. Discourse Stages

2. Beyond Mere Code and Structure

3. Discourse Rules and “Implicature”

B. Principles of Relevance, Politeness, and Balance

C. Message Clarification and Elaboration

D. Direction and Compass

IV. Interpreting Legal Texts: Starting Points

A. “Textualism” Defined

B. Finding Operative Text

1. Defining “Text”

2. Finding Possible Text Through Cohesion

a. Intentional Cohesion

b. Referential Cohesion

c. Relational and Formal Cohesion

d. Contextual Cohesion

e. Other Background Cohesion

f. Purpose as Arbiter When Cohesion Factors Conflict

g. Simply Starting With Text Is Thus Impossible Unless Arbitrary

3. Finding Relevant Text Through Cohesion

4. Interpretation As Both Precedent and Subsequent to Text and Considerations of Text

V. Interpreting Legal Texts: Stages, Relevance, Politeness, and Balance

A. Stages and Variations

B. Remembering Stage Eight: Reconstruction

C. Individual and Corporate Legal Texts

D. Public Law Texts

VI. Interpreting Legal Texts: Context and Its Types

A. Cognitive Context

B. Physical & Temporal Context

C. Social, Cultural, and Human Context

D. Discourse Context

E. Textual or Internal Context

F. Purpose Context

G. Policy Context

H. Context Flux

VII. Interpreting Legal Texts: Coding & Compass In More Detail

A. Encoding Error

B. Vagueness

1. Vague as Ill Defined

2. Vague as Lax

C. Ambiguity

1. Semantic Ambiguity

2. Syntactic Ambiguity

D. Indeterminacy

E. Anaphora and Cataphora

F. Ellipsis

VIII. Further Meaning Beyond the Message: Gaps and Omissions

A. Illusory Gaps

B. Real Gaps

C. Addressing Possible Gaps and Omissions

IX. Implementives

A. “Micro-Implementives”

B. “Macro-Implementives”

X. Conclusion

Appendix: Additional Pragmatic Considerations for Legal Texts

A. Presuppositions

1. Semantic Presuppositions

2. Pragmatic Presuppositions

B. Entailments

C. Unstated Premises

D. Additional Background Considerations

1. Applicable Frames

2. Applicable Concepts and Metaphors

E. Deixis

1. Personal Deixis

2. Spatial Deixis

3. Temporal Deixis

4. Conversational or Discourse Deixis

5. Social Deixis

6. Deixis As Incompatible Within Inherent Plain Meaning