Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

60 Forbidden Words
These phrases derive from an early literary practice of conjoining one noun
of Germanic origin with a synonym of Romance origin, as in the case of false
and untrue and will and testament. But the most befuddling aspect of legalese
to out-groupers is probably its grammatical structure. Long and extremely
complex sentences can render a piece of legalese very difficult for the general
reader to comprehend. Section 1 of Form S6/147 (Guarantee for Existing or
New Advance), issued by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group
Limited, consists of one sentence of about 1,270 words long. The average
length of a sentence in a legal document is 55 words, which is twice the
number for scientific English texts and eight times the number found in
dramatic texts. 6 In the quotation below, the subject ‘a term of sale’ is
separated from its predicate ‘is void’ by a complex of embedded material
containing as many as 11 propositions expressed in 88 words. Section 2
includes a string of negatives, ‘not’, ‘exclude’, ‘restrict’, ‘unless’, ‘inconsistent’,
and this significantly complicates the comprehensibility of the passage.
1. A term of a sale (including a term that is not set out in the sale but is incorporated in
the sale by another term of sale) that purports to exclude, restrict or modify or
purports to have the effect of excluding, restricting or modifying –
a. the application in relation to that sale of all or any of the provisions of this Part
[of the act];
b. the exercise of a right conferred by such a provision; or
c. any liability of the seller for breach of a condition or warranty implied by such a
provision –
is void.
2. A term of a sale shall not be taken to exclude, restrict or modify the application of
this Part unless the term does so expressly or is inconsistent with that provision.
(Sales Act, State of Victoria, Australia)
It would be dysphemistic for a lawyer not to use jargon when creating a legal
document: that is exactly what legalese is for. However, the combination of
esoteric vocabulary, grammatical complexities like abnormally long sentences,
large numbers of passives (e.g. ‘A term of a sale shall not be taken to
exclude’), nominalizations (e.g. ‘the effect of excluding, restricting or modifying’),
intrusive phrases (e.g. ‘(including a term that is not set out in the sale but
is incorporated in the sale by another term of sale)’), multiple embeddings (e.g.
most of section 1 in the quote above) and multiple negatives (e.g. in section 2 in
the quote), as well as the unconventional presentation and maintenance of
topics, typically leads the out-grouper to perceive a legal document as having
a discourse structure that is hard to follow. So when the public are presented
with documents written in legalese, they will often feel offended by the
perception that the writer has required them to expend unreasonable effort in
order to understand what the document means. 7 As a result, they may feel
incapable of understanding the implications of what is said without help from a