Fighting over Words: Language and Civil Law Cases
Roger W. Shuy
Abstract
Everybody fights about something or other and language is usually at the very center of the conflict. We use language as we fight our battles, but when the dispute is over what is said or how it was worded, language becomes the very cause of the battle. Although there are many arenas in which language disputes can be observed, civil law cases offer the most fertile examples of this warfare over words. What did the business contract actually say or mean? Was there evidence of deceptive language practice in its promotional materials? Can the warning label become part of a product liability charg ... More
Everybody fights about something or other and language is usually at the very center of the conflict. We use language as we fight our battles, but when the dispute is over what is said or how it was worded, language becomes the very cause of the battle. Although there are many arenas in which language disputes can be observed, civil law cases offer the most fertile examples of this warfare over words. What did the business contract actually say or mean? Was there evidence of deceptive language practice in its promotional materials? Can the warning label become part of a product liability charge? Did the company evidence age discrimination or race discrimination against its employees or customers? Was one company's trademark too similar to another's? Did the company engage in copyright infringement? Was it guilty of procurement fraud in its business proposal? This book is about the way linguistic analysis describes, exposes, and helps corporations analyze disputed meanings and practices in various types of civil cases where the central issues revolve around the way language was used in commerce. It also provides all of the language data that was practical to include so that others can do their own analyses.
Keywords:
business contract,
deceptive language,
warning label,
product liability,
age discrimination,
race discrimination,
trademark,
copyright infringement,
procurement fraud,
commerce,
disputed meanings
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2008 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195328837 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2008 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328837.001.0001 |
