A research on the lexico-grammatical features of legal provisions in the Philippine real estate industry.

1. Paulina M. Gocheco
[Issues and Trends in Applied Linguistics in the
Philippines; A Decade in Retrospect
ed. Dita, S.N.
Manila Anvil Publishing, Inc. (2011)]

2. The complex and specialized language used in legal
discourse may pose problems to most ESP teachers and
learners because of its unique use of language. Bhatia
(1993) claims that “LANGUAGE OF LAW” encompasses
several usefully distinguishable genres depending upon
the (1) communicative purposes they tend to fulfill, (2)
the setting/contexts in which they are used, (3) the
communicative events/activities they are associated with,
(4) the social/professional relationship between the
participants taking part in such activities/events.

3. o Legal discourse – may be categorized into
genres according to the purpose that each
GENRE may serve.
 GENRE as defined by Swales (1990) is a recognizable
communicative event characterized by a set of communicative
purpose(s) defined and mutually understood by the members
of the professional, academic and other communities.
o Bhatia (1993) adds that LEGAL LANGUAGE
includes several sub-genres in the legal setting
depending on the communicative purpose that it
has to fulfill.

4. o Legal provisions – legal texts that exemplify a
genre in legal discourse. These are important
texts in the PROFESSION of real estate.
o Knowledge of laws on legal ownership, contracts
and other related laws is essential in real estate
industry because the right to own real estate is
governed by the law of the land,
CONSTITUTION.

5. o Real estate transactions involve substantial amount of
funds; thus, any wrong information on property
acquisition, whether intentional/unintentional, may lead to
penalties or lawsuits.
o An essential characteristic of legal provisions is the
communicative purpose, that is, to impose obligations
and confer rights.
o The communicative purpose explains why legal
provisions are written in the way they are – with
numerous nominalizations and a considerable number of
embeddings.

6. o The interest of this study is the genre of legal provisions
in the real estate in the Philippines.
o A common problem on information/ misinformation
involves the legal issues that are relevant to real estate
transactions.
o This study aims to provide real estate practitioners the
necessary information about the use of lexico-
grammatical features in legal provisions. It develops the
ability to read and interpret legal provisions relevant to
real estate industry.

7. o Language used in legal provision may be
described and analyzed through the lexico-
grammatical features of texts.
o Bhatia (1993) identifies three (3) levels of
linguistic realization at w/c significant features of
language occur, namely:
o Analysis of lexico-grammatical features
o Analysis of text-patterning
o Structural interpretation of the text

8. o Dominant lexico-grammatical features of legal provisions,
as identified by Bhatia (1993), include the SENTENCE
LENGTH, NOMINAL CHARACTER, COMPLEX
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES, MULTINOMIAL PHRASES
and SYNTACTIC DISCONTINUTIES.
o Measurable characteristics of LAW SYNTAX is sentence
length. (Bhatia, 1993; Crystal and Davy, 1969;
Gustafsson, 1975)
o Barber (1962, in Bhatia, 1993) points out that the
average length in written scientific English is 27.6 words
as opposed to an above-average length of 271 words in
legal writing.

9. o Another prominent feature is high nominalization (Crystal
and Davy, 1969; Swales and Bhatia, 1983 as cited in
Bhatia, 1993). Acc. to Crystal and Davy, there is a
conspicuous preference for post-modification in the
nominal groups.
o Complex prepositional phrases – exhibit the structure: P
– N – P (PREPOSITION + NOUN + PREPOSITION).
o EX:
In respect of
In accordance with
In pursuance of
By virtue of

10. o Binomial sequence/expression – sequence of
two words/phrases belonging to the same
grammatical category and joined by some
syntactic device such as “AND” or “OR”.
o Ex:
Signed and delivered
Wholly and completely
o Legal language – characterized by discontinuous
noun phrases, prepositional phrases and
binomial phrase with long qualification insertions
embedded in them (Bhatia, 1993)

11. Where any trial of offence
Punishable under Sec. 161
[or Sec. 165 of the Indian Penal Code]
[or of an offence referred to in a clause
(b) of subsection (1) of Sec. 5 of this
Act punishable under subsection thereof]
It is proved that an accused
person has accepted
[or obtained,
[or has agreed to accept,
[or attempted to obtain,
For himself
[or for any other person
Any gratification (other
Than legal remuneration)
[or any valuable for any person]

12. 3.1 Corpus
o 14 Philippine legal provisions on property, ownership
and other real estate laws were compiled from Book II
(Property, Ownership and its Modifications) of the
Philippine Civil Code.
o 14 provisions were found to be clearly related to real
estate in this particular chapter/book of Philippine Civil
Code
3.2 Framework of Analysis
o The present study concentrated on the first level of
analysis. The occurrences of the lexico-grammatical
features were counted, tallied and analyzed.

13. 4.1 Lexico-grammatical Analysis
4.1.1 Sentence Length
Table 1 shows that the average sentence
length of legal provisions examined is 51.4
WORDS PER SENTENCE. The LONGEST
SENTENCE is 272 WORDS. These figures are
consistent w/ claims made in previous studies
and the general impression about the length of
sentences in the language of law. In other
disciplines, a length of 272 words may comprise
of a paragraph/essay that is almost one-page
long.

14. Civil Code
Legal
Provisions
Sentenc
e
Length
Nominal
NOM
Verb
Group
Complex
Prep.
Phrases
Binomial
& Multi-
nominal
Exp.
Syntactic
Discontinuity
a. Noun
phrase
b. Binomial
phrase
c. Prep
phrase
Art 414 26 7 3 0 3 3
Art 415 272 86 11 0 1 10
Art 708 26 10 1 0 3 5
Art 709 28 28 3 0 1 5
Art 710 31 8 2 0 5 4
Art 711 57 19 2 0 3 7
Art 1495 24 5 2 0 3 2
*Art 1539
(4 sentences)
52 13.5 16 0 3 23
Art 1540 54 15 6 0 1 7

15. Civil Code
Legal
Provisions
Sentence
Length
Nominal
NOM
Verb
Group
Complex
Prep.
Phrases
Binomial
& Multi-
nominal
Exp.
Syntactic
Discontinuity
a. Noun
phrase
b. Binomial
phrase
c. Prep
phrase
Art 1541 12 3 1 0 0 2
Art 1542 83 14 14 0 3 8
Art 1543 19 6 1 0 0 4
Art 1544
(3 sentences)
32.66 8.66 8 0 0 3
Art 1567 33 12 1 0 1 2
Total 719.66 235.16 71 0 27 85
Average 51.40 16.80 5.07 0 1.92 6.07

16. 4.1.2 Nominal Structure
o Table 1 reveals that the corpus exhibits a highly nominal
character w/ an average of 18.80 nominal structures per
sentence
o There are significant no. of repetitions of lexical terms
and almost no occurrence of pronounce and other
anaphoric references.
o It may be justified that the use of anaphora and
substitutions entails some risk and may create confusion
and ambiguity in the text.
o Legal writing uses exact references through repetition of
lexical terms and almost no use of anaphoric links in
sentences.

17. Complex Prepositional Phrases
o No occurrence of complex prepositional phrases
in the corpus analyzed.
o This is surprising due to the notion that most
legislative writings manifest this feature.
o On the other hand, Bhatia (1993) emphasizes
the notion that LAW IS NOT UNIVERSAL, unlike
science.
o This is due to the fact that there are different
kinds of legal system: COMMON LAW, CIVIL
LAW and SHARIAH LAW.

18. Legal Provisions
Philippine Civil Code
(Relevant to Real
Estate)
Provisionary Clause Qualifications
Art 414 All things
Are considered either:
Immovable
Or movable
Which are
Or may be the object of
Appropriation
Or real property
Or personal property

19. Provisionary
Clause
Essential
Elements
Qualifications Essential
Elements
Lexico-
grammatical
Feature
All things 1 Legal
subject
2 Case
Description
*which are/or
may be the
object of
appropriation
4 Conditions Adjective
clause/Binomi
al expression
Are
considered:
immovable or
movable
3 Legal
action
*or real property;
*or personal
property
Binomial
expression