Parts of speech; number, person and gender in legal English
LUG-105 English and Legal Language, Unit II: Parts of speech. · LLB · 60 min
The eight parts of speech, each defined and illustrated from pleadings, statutes and judgments, with the drafting lesson each one carries (the dangerous pronoun, the modal verb, the misplaced adverb). The lecture also covers syllabus topic 1, number, person and gender: the plural rules including the Latin plurals of legal English (memoranda, criteria, data), the drafting convention of the third person, and the gender rule of the Sanhita and the General Clauses Act with gender-neutral drafting. Examined as "name the parts of speech", "explain any four" and "why do parts of speech matter in legal drafting".
Objectives
- Name the eight parts of speech and classify any word in a legal sentence by the work it does
- Explain why each part of speech matters in drafting a contract, a pleading or a statute
- Form the plural of ordinary and Latin nouns and make the verb agree with the subject
- Use the third person as the drafting convention and recognise when the first person is required
- State the gender rule of the General Clauses Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and draft gender-neutrally
Slides
- Parts of speech: words classified by their work
- Noun and pronoun
- Adjective and adverb
- Verb: the heart of the sentence
- Preposition, conjunction, interjection
- Why parts of speech matter in legal drafting
- Number: singular and plural
- Person and the drafting convention
- Gender and gender-neutral drafting
- Exercise with answers
- How the examiner asks it
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