International Marketing Assignment (current Issue) Essay

International Marketing Assignment (current Issue) Essay International Marketing Assignment (current Issue) – Essay Example DRAFT Tylor in the article â€Å"Samsungs S4 heads for a Galaxy far, far away† explores the increased properties of the new Samsung galaxy S4 tablet and its features, classified as the best smart phone in the market as yet. The phone that has an 18 inch screen has been developed with the most sophisticated Android technology ever on earth. The phone seeks to maintain the leadership of Samsung in the smart phones industry. Product innovation involves the creation of a new product or improving the features of an existing product. The smart phone has new software features and increased hardware tweaks in a package similar to Samsung galaxy S3, although it is greatly improvised than the previous. The elements of the phone include a metal casing; it is narrower than its predecessor the Galaxy S4. Its screen is clearer and brighter in comparison to other phones. The phone has a removable battery pack which makes it switchable when it runs out of power. However, the hardware is consi dered to be non-revolutionary. Contrary to this, the software is nice since a user do not have to touch the screen to navigate through the applications. It has a facial recognition element. According to the smart phone has been designed to be water proof and Taylor, P. (2013, Mar 15). Samsungs S4 heads for a galaxy far, far away.  Financial Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1317138701?accountid=45049Seitz, P. (2013, Mar 14). Qualcomm seen as key beneficiary of samsung galaxy S4.  Investors Business Daily. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1324599173?accountid=45049Sebastian, A. (2013). Samsung galaxy S4 dimensions, weight, battery, and hardware specs confirmed ahead of launch.ExtremeTech.Com,  Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1318492357?accountid=45049

Macroeconomic policy of Reserve Bank of Australia Essays - Economy

Macroeconomic policy of Reserve Bank of Australia Essays - Economy THE DECISION OF THE RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA TO KEEP THE INTEREST RATE UNCHANGED AT 1.5% Case Study By Tapas K. Chakraborty TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 OBJECTIVES OF MONETARY POLICY 5 MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS OF MAJOR COUNTRIES 9 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE DECISION 10 MONEY MARKET EQUILIBRIUM AND MONETARY TRANSMISSION MECHANISM14 ECONOMIC GROWTH18 CONCLUSION19 REFERENCES20 INTRODUCTION The instant case study is built upon succinct analysis of the macroeconomic dynamics interacting in Australian and global landscape, before and aftermath of the decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to keep the interest rate unchanged at 1.50%. The important macroeconomic policy decision was announced by the Governor of RBA in the media release dated 4th December, 2018. It was asserted by Mr. Lowe, Governor of RBA, that financial conditions of Australia and advanced economies did not warrant any change in the existing cash rate. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Board, after the meeting, unanimously agreed that no monetary stimulus resulting from lowering of interest is necessary in the background of expansionary domestic and international economy The RBA Governing body's decision to keep the interest rate unchanged is based upon the macroeconomic dynamics underpinning the money market and goods market equilibrium, and the effect that interest rate could instill upon the equilibrium in money market and good market. The RBA Board posits that global economic conditions have improved since 2017, and most of the advanced economies have been able to register more than expected positive economic growth, and the employment scenario of the countries have significantly improved. Australia's terms of trade (TOT) has improved and continues to be robust. This shows the country is capable of combating cost-push inflation as the prices of imported goods continue to be at the lower side. The RBA Board also argues that inflationary pressure of all the advanced countries including Australia is near the acceptable level as wage-push inflationary pressure remains low. The economies of many advanced countries are in expansionary path in spite of absence of any monetary stimulus. The optimism in the Australian economy is well evidenced in the strong equity market, less volatility, and diminished gap between bond yield and other maturities. The economy of the country grew at expected rate during the quarter ended September, 2018, and the Gross Domestic Product GDP) of the country is expected to grow by 3% in the next five years. Increased business activities in the country are evidenced in increase in capacity utilization of industries and better performance by non-mining sectors. The RBA is of the view that the infrastructure of the country is highly conducive to economic growth, unemployment rate is declining, and labor-force participation continues to improve. The 2% percent underlying inflation rate in the country is expected to improve to further effective level as the economy expands. OBJECTIVES OF MONETARY POLICY Monetary policy is an envelope of policies involving interest rate, public debt, and monetary standards, intended to influence credit volume, price level, and economic activities ( The Balance, 2017). The chief objective of monetary policy is to protect the economy from the onslaught of trade cycles. An elastic monetary policy enables the country to achieve sustained growth at healthy rate of inflation. The apex banking institution of a country monitors the volume of money in the economy by adopting appropriate monetary policy depending upon the macroeconomic conditions of the country. The Central Bank of a country controls credit by open market operations, selective credit control, and fluctuations in the interest rate. The first two methods are intended to control supply of money directly, while the last one is meant for indirectly controlling the demand for money. Functions of money: The following 5 important functions are performed by money: (Cliff Notes, 2017); It is the medium of exchange. It acts as a store of value. It functions as standard of measuring value . It serves as the standard of deferred payments. It is used for transferring value from one place to another. Functions of RBA: RBA, established under Reserve Bank Act, 1959, is the apex banking authority of the country entrusted with the task of monitoring the monetary mechanism required for smooth functioning of the economy for sustained economic growth of the country. The RBA is responsible for maintaining adequate resource flow

Case study- social commerce creates new customer relationship Study

- social commerce creates new customer relationship - Case Study Example Best Buy maintains a very large following in social media, actually using all of the data gathered from customer sentiment and question/answer opportunities with dedicated response staff as an evaluation tool. Best Buy conducts analytical research using social media data to determine whether its promotions are meeting with success. The article warns, however, that there are difficulties to using social media as a promotional tool, citing Starbucks as an example. This company received many photos chastising Starbucks for its labor practices, rather than delivering photos of advertising posters mandated by the contest. 1. Assess the people, organization, and technology issues for using social media to engage with customers. Pornpitakpan (2003) identifies the importance of using celebrity endorsers for improving a product brand position. Consumers find that a brand is more credible when an attractive and trustworthy celebrity endorses the product. When using social media, the people wit hin the organization become a type of celebrity endorser (such as Steve Jobs at Apple, Inc.), thus the information being provided to customers must be considered credible. Companies such as Best Buy, with their Twelp Force responders, become the face of Best Buy and therefore their behaviors must be controlled, the depth of their competence must be evaluated, and the content being transmitted over the social network must be relevant to consumer needs. From a people perspective, it would add risk by having employees represent the company and a potential cost burden. The company would also have to organize social media activities within the value chain, ensuring supervision, control systems, and those responsible for developing creative Web content. Using social media might require a more decentralized organization. In relation to technology, the brand using this platform for promotion or customer relationship management would need to ensure they have staff trained in gathering analyt ical online data and transforming it into useful information. 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising, brand building, market research and customer service? There are many advantages for using these sites. Apple, Inc., as one example, often uses social media to gain more presence with customers. Apple has the highest brand loyalty of any technology company, according to JD Power (Info Tech, 2007). Apple has conducted considerable market research about the lifestyles and attitudes of customers and is able to generate content that is relevant to these beliefs and lifestyles. Thus, what social media does for Apple is create real-time relationship development and interactivity with the Apple brand in a way that is not met by competitors. Social media sites also fit under the psychological theory of social learning. When people look toward their peers about product purchasing, they will often emulate these behaviors. Thus, the social media sites provide meaningful peer feedback that in turn changes attitudes about a brand. Best Buy, as illustrated in the case study, is a benchmark of using real-time response units to provide better customer service. Social media serves as a platform for engagement in a way not seen traditionally. Disadvantages can be illustrated by companies like

Direct & eMarketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Direct & eMarketing - Essay Example To assert that the internet is just another channel to market is an understatement. It has revolutionized the way in which marketing is done. The advent of the New Media and Internet has increased possibilities of online marketing and internet retailing with new features of interactive shopping, pod casting and e-marketing. Consumers are connected to online shopping sites with WiFi, Internet or 3G mobile phones. E commerce has taken a new dimension in retailing with increasing number of people shopping online and even making flight bookings online (Papers4you.com, 2006). There is a range of access platforms such as web, e-mail, mobile phones and interactive digital TV that comprise the online channels which e-marketers use to build and develop relationships with customers. E-marketing, as specialists of CISCO puts it, "is a generic term utilized for a wide range of activities - advertising, customer communications, branding, fidelity programs - using the internet. More than the simple development of a website, e-marketing focuses on online communications, direct dialog with consumers who thus participate to the creation of new products, finding efficient methods to win customer's fidelity and ease their business-making process. eMarketing is the sum of activities a company makes with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers" (Otlacan, 2005). Accordingly, e-marketing allows relational exchanges in digital, networked and interactive environments. As a way of online shopping, e-marketing include service providers selling services and retail businesses selling items to customers and auctioneers as well who create marketplaces where citizens can buy and sell goods through the internet (Summers, Smith, et al, 2003). The tools used are a wide array of electronic possibilities that very much involve electronic mails. Practical illustrations of how internet marketing works are observed in the processes on which eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon.com undertake to facilitate its business. People who've got used to eBay don't often stop to think how amazing it is - an online marketplace where you can buy things from all over the world, without leaving your home. You can get things that you would never think anyone would bother to sell, and you can get them cheaply. The powerful search engine means that you can find things you'll like without even knowing exactly what you're looking for. Customers can buy goods from these online shopping sites by logging on to their websites (www.ebay.com). As online retailers, these businesses provide customers with pictures and descriptions of the products posted for sales transactions. In the case of Amazon.com, customer reviews of their books in addition to the book descriptions are provided. The sales process is conducted with the use of credit cards. Customers are required to enter the information from the credit card into the computer. With the information coming from the credit card, the modem sends out the details to the financial institution. Credit card is undoubtedly the dominant method of payment used to shop online. As the popularity of online shopping grows, many online retailers have increased their credit card security on their websites. Online retailers use encryption technology to make credit card information more secure and provide the padlock or unbroken key symbols in the

St. Augustine and Telemachus in Homers Odyssey Essay

St. Augustine and Telemachus in Homers Odyssey - Essay Example Unlike Monica to the young Augustine, Penelope did not share any knowledge or wisdom to Telemachus. Instead, there were even times that it was Telemachus that rebukes her. In Book 1 of the Odyssey, Telemachus rebukes Penelope for her bereavement which was caused by a song. In Book 23, he rebukes her for not welcoming Odysseus properly. In my observation, Telemachus' respect for Penelope rose from the fact that she was his mother but not because she was wise and Telemachus looked up to her. With respect to their father's Telemachus was closer to his father than the young Augustine was. Although Odysseus was away the whole time Telemachus was growing up, it was actually his absence that caused Telemachus to step up, take responsibility and be a man. And the little time that they spent shortly after Odysseus returned to Ithaca and during their battle against Penelope's suitors was enough to greatly influence Telemachus' maturity. On the other hand, Patrick has less influence on Augustine. He did make young Augustines' study in Carthage possible. And as a pagan, he did provide Augustine alternative principles to Catholic faith. Though I believe that this was a great reason why Augustine was so open-minded, I think it was his mother's faith and wisdom that ultimately influence Augustine's view. Augustine believed in only one God who plays passive role in people's lives. That God creates people in goodness but lets them live their own lives as they will. He even believed that God is not a separate being and it is actually within him, within everything. On the other hand, there were many Greek gods in Telemachus' life. Contrary to what Augustine believed, Greek gods are separate beings. They have names, personalities and even relationships. And they also play a very active role in people's lives. They talk to them either thru dreams or by disguising as humans. They even help them out in battles. Their Search for Knowledge All his life, he sought for knowledge. He went out to study at Carthage, Rome and Milan. He devoted his entire existence seeking for the truth in faith, sciences and philosophy. And he even had to deal with inner conflict in the process. Telemachus went on a journey as well. But unlike Augustine's quest for knowledge on greater things such as life itself, Telemachus' quest was limited only to seek for knowledge on his father's whereabouts. And despite such journey, his acquisition of any information was greatly because of the gods. Athena fed him information either by disguising as Odysseus friend or sending messages in his dreams. Conclusion In my opinion, Telemachus and Augustine's process of coming of age was very different. They differ as to how they regard their parents and who ultimately influenced their persons. For Telemachus, it was his father that greatly influenced his being. On the other hand, for Augustine, it was his mother that influenced his ideals and principles. They also differ on how the gods affects their living. For Telemachus, the gods actively participated in his activities. But for Augustine, God served only as a guiding force. However, for me, the most important difference in their maturity is this. For Telemachus, it is my opinion that maturity was imposed on him. If his father was not absent, there would not be any annoying suitors courting his mother. There would not be a need for him to take responsibility and

The egg drop challenge is not mostly Essay Example for Free

The egg drop challenge is not mostly Essay The egg drop challenge is not mostly a shock absorption exercise; the springiness of the padding around the egg is the determining factor. A bus without springs is near impossible to drive, while one without shocks feels almost normal until moments when the shocks are needed. What will break the egg is to have a force on the egg greater than the shell can withstand. This can be avoided by distributing the force evenly across the eggs surface. The shell is very strong if the force is well distributed, and very weak if the force is all at one point, or on a small area. You can pierce the egg with a very small force with a needle, yet you can put it between your palms and push with great force without breaking it. If your padding is too soft, it will work well until the padding has compressed, and then the egg will experience a large g-force and break. If your padding is too hard, then the egg will break while the padding is being compressed. What is desired is padding that will compress at a rate that gives the egg the longest time to stop. We believe that the best solution is to have increasingly soft padding surrounding the egg in multiple (in our case, 3) layers. Our guess is that firm foam around the egg with softer foam outside of that and still softer foam further outside will give the desired results. It is also imperative that the foam in direct contact with the egg fit the eggs shape as well as possible, to help evenly distribute the forces on the egg. Also, if you can get the egg to fall vertically rather than horizontally it will endure much more force because of the oval shape of the egg. This point is easily demonstrated by the fact that it is very difficult to break an egg in your hand when you apply the forces on the top and bottom of the egg, while it is much easier to break the egg by compressing its sides. The final point we will make is that the larger your package, the further the egg travels during its stop, thus decreasing the impulse that the egg experiences, so we have done our best to ensure that the container for our egg is as close to 12 cm3 as possible.

Syntactical Structure Of The Language Of Law

Syntactical Structure Of The Language Of Law 1. Introduction Legal language. Once an almost magical language of words of stipulation and oaths that should have impressed its subjects and submit them in awe to its absolute obedience. Now, it may be said that the awe has disappeared, but the magic of the language of the law somehow persists, mainly due to its so called vices unintelligibility or wordiness. Everyday situations and relationships are governed by law whether people like it or not. Legal positivism argues that all our actions are covered by law (i.e. legislation, legal principles derived from judicial decisions in Common Law, or contracts) based on the principle that what is not prohibited by the law is permitted (see for example Weinberger 1995). Making pirouettes on the roof of my house every day at five oclock in the morning would be considered ‘legal because there is no law prohibiting such an activity. But let me present a less absurd example. Even by getting on the bus, though not in writing, individuals conclude a contr act with the transportation agency. In every tram or bus a list of business terms can be found an official-looking piece of paper divided in articles, sections or paragraphs, full of rights and obligations of the transporter as well as the customer. The society is inter-bound by an enormous number of agreements, arrangements and contracts, stating or implying rights and duties of its parties. To give them the mark of formality, to regulate them and to enforce them, there is the Law with its provisions. As the main functions of the law are the performative and normative (Cao 2007, 13-15), it is necessary for law to be able to communicate its norms to their addresses. This happens through language. In everyday situations, the Law and the language of its norms, regulations and laws priests lawyers are still somewhere near. Internationalisation of society has brought closer contacts among foreign countries in various aspects. Legal relationships are one of them. The European Union as well as the states themselves produce a large amount of legislation with which the companies and individuals have to deal. Still, an important part of legal relationships is carried out by means of ‘private regulations set by bi- or multi-lateral contracts by the individuals themselves (within a given legal context). Therefore, translating these contracts becomes a big issue and the main activity of numerous translation agencies. Nowadays, English is the Latin of today. It is the main language of international trade and commerce. It is not only the language of contracts when one of their parties comes from an English-speaking environment but even when no native English-speaking party is involved. Although in certain cases English serves as the ‘neutral language of legal agreements, the general understanding of English is not at such a level that they would not need to be translated to peoples mother tongues. Apart from that, legal English and ordinary English are not identical languages (Gubby 2007, 9) and the mastery of ordinary English does not mean a mastery of legal English. This thesis deals with the characteristics of legal Czech and legal English within their legal environments and problems of translation between them. The first part (Chapters 2, 3 and 4) introduces the legal language in general and analyzes the specifics of legal Czech and legal English. Chapter 5 deals with the translation of legal texts and sources of difficulties in legal translation. The second part of this thesis focuses on contracts a sub-genre of legal texts. Chapter 6 defines the place of contracts among other legal texts and deals with the stylistic specifics of contracts in general. Chapter 7 introduces and analyzes the experiment. The experiment is based on an analysis of translations of contracts by translation agencies who advertise their competence in legal translation. It seeks to find out what the general quality of their translation is and what the main problematic points are: whether it is the understanding of the text in general, finding suitable translational sol ution of the concepts or the style or understandability of the TL text. I expect the translation agencies to have problems with finding accurate translation solutions for some of the system-bound concepts, but I expect the translations to be accurate regarding the translation of the actual rights and obligations. Concrete hypotheses follow in Chapter 7. 2. Legal Language Legal language is not a language of everyday use by a population (unless, with a degree of understatement we want to call lawyers a population of a kind). It is a specialized language of legal norms and related discourse. Its distinctiveness may be seen in a number of characteristics that differentiate it from the language of ordinary use. But, there is no universal language of law that would be comprehensible to all languages. Law is a system that is bound to a particular state or organization. Language of law, its words, syntactic structure and concepts are closely related to the legal system in question. The relationship between the language and the law is mutual: the legal system influences the nature of the legal language and the legal language the language of the legal discourse influences the system. The speech of lawyers is conditioned not by the law alone, but also by the prevailing language of their environment (Mellinkoff 1963, 4). Language of law is a system- and culture-bound language for special purposes. This does not mean that the language of law is completely detached from the ordinary language. Most of its words are taken from the ordinary language. On the other hand, legal language influences everyday speech and many of its originally technical terms are now accepted as common. Mellinkoff (1963, 9) gives the examples of plaintiff or defendant in English; the same holds for the Czech sml ouva (contract) or zà ¡stava(pawn). In making generalizations about the language of law for the purpose of this thesis, the characteristics will be drawn from those of legal Czech and legal English. The legal systems in which these technical languages originated belong to different legal system families: English law (i.e. the law of England) is a part of the common law family whereas the Czech law is a member of the civil law family. 2.1 The Nature of Legal Language Cao (2007, 13-20) classifies legal language with respect to the nature of its use that can be described as normative, performative and technical. Normative The Language of law is used to impose rights and obligations; it is largely prescriptive. Laws basic function is to regulate human behaviour and human relations. Law exists as a set of prescriptions having the form of imperatives defining and enforcing the arrangements, relationships, procedures and patterns of behaviour that are to be followed in a society (Cao 2007, 12, quoting Jenkins 1980, 98). Legal language serves to communicate the legal norms to their addressees. Performative The speech act theory developed by J. L. Austin and J. R. Searle makes language responsible for effects in reality. Speech is not only words but also actions. By uttering certain words, we the facts may be changed. Legal effects and legal consequences are commonly obtained by merely uttering certain words (Cao 2007, 14), for example in a courts judgement or in front of a clerk or a priest during the marriage ceremony. Technical The question of technicality of legal language is not perceived consistently. One position argues that there is no legal language as such and it is a part of the ordinary language. The other holds that legal language is a technical language. If the latter view is accepted, what makes the language of law different from other types of language use?   The chief differences may be discussed in relation to the following aspects: speakers stylistic differences specific vocabulary terminology issues syntactic structures 2.2 Speakers The language of law is a language of legal norms and related discourse. The language of legal norms is that of legislation, judicial decisions or contracts. It is said that it is the language created and used specifically by lawyers. Although the lawyers form the core of the language-of-law-speaking community, legislation, for example, is influenced by people with no legal educational background, yet who adopt the legal terminology and expressions to a certain extent. Drawing on the situation in the civil law system, the circle of the legal language users may be described as follows: The legislators (the drafters who actually write the laws; members of the parliament, whose knowledge of all the terminology and concepts is not complete and sufficient but who try to sound as if it was), i.e. all those who create the laws in the written form and who have real influence on definitions of legal terms The judiciary (judges and people who influence the written judgements assistants to the judges or court clerks vyÃ…Â ¡Ãƒâ€¦Ã‚ ¡Ãƒ ­ soudnà ­ à ºÃƒâ€¦Ã¢â€ž ¢ednà ­ci) The lawyers (when negotiating, giving speeches in court, drafting documents etc.; and when talking to one another) The circle of the law language speakers in common law systems is generally the same. The major difference is that the origins of certain terms and the evolution of the language are somewhat different due to the different sources of law (the main body of legal rules is to be found in judicial decisions not in legislation). The type of speaker influences the particular style of the legal language: there is a difference between the language of an Act of Parliament (or zà ¡kon) and the language used by lawyers when talking to one another about legal matters. Nevertheless, at times the language the lawyers use does not seem to resemble the language of legislation at all. Lawyers seem to have developed some linguistic quirks that have little communicative function, and serve mainly to mark them as members of the legal fraternity (Tiersma 1999, 51).   2.3 Style Language of law is said to be purposive and pragmatic (Knapp 1995, 122). Its style is therefore governed by these characters. There have been numerous attempts on defining ‘style. One of them was made by Vilà ©m Mathesius. He defines style as â€Å"individual, unifying character found to be present in any work resulting from intentional activity† (Vachek 1974, 114). Legal style refers to the linguistic aspects of the written legal language and also to the way in which legal problems are approached, managed and solved (Cao 2007, 22, quoting Smith 1995, 190). The style of the language of law is one of the functional styles. It is said to be marked and sometimes described as being a sub-style and the most typical specimen of the officialese style, the style of official documents (Vachek 1974, 187). On the other hand, in the last decades there have been authors who believed the style of the language of law to be a separate functional style alongside other functional styles, the officialese, or administrative, being one of them. The style of the language of law can be described mainly with regard t o its syntactical structure and specific vocabulary. 2.3.1 Syntactical Structure of the Language of Law Vachek (1974, 188) describes the sentences in English legal texts to be long and complex, yet clearly built up, using various typographical devices of distributing phrases, division of the text into parallel paragraphs and capitalizing certain crucial points of the document. When describing the typical features of legal English, Tiersma (1999, 51-71) gives the following list of typical features which overlap with Vacheks description at some points: lengthy and complex sentences, unusual sentence structure, wordiness and redundancy, conjoined phrases, frequent use of negation and impersonal constructions. Cao (2007, 22) gives two general characteristics of the legal language: impersonal constructions and extensive use of declarative sentences pronouncing rights and obligations. Mellinkoff (1963, 285) argues that the language of law should not be different from the ordinary language without reason. For such differences, the following rationales are usually given: legal language is more precise, shorter, more intelligible and more durable. Of these arguments, precision seems to be the leading feature of the language of law that should give reason to all the other features which are sometimes said to be its vices. These syntactical features are further discussed in relation to legal English and legal Czech respectively. 2.3.2 Lexis The most important difference that sets off legal language from ordinary language is its lexicon. Legal language makes use of numerous words and terms that are not common in ordinary language or carry an additional meaning different from their ordinary meaning. Legal language utilizes vocabulary from standard language both in their ordinary meanings (the majority of legal language vocabulary) and specialized meanings. This second class of words may create confusion because in legal texts they may appear in both their meanings ordinary and specialized. Knapp (1978, 17-20) distinguishes the following groups of words: legal terms words with specific legal meaning and specific meaning in another specialized language words with both specific legal meaning and ordinary meaning words having specific legal meaning, specific meaning in another specialized language as well as ordinary meaning words with neutral meaning In his later writing, Knapp (1995, 122) describes legal lexis as follows: words with ordinary meaning words with both specific legal meaning and ordinary meaning specific legal vocabulary legal language does not use some of the words with ordinary meaning (e.g. beauty, darkness) To complete the enumeration of characteristics of legal language, Mellinkoff (1963, 11) gives the following characteristics of legal English terms: frequent use of common words with uncommon meanings; legal archaisms (words from Old and Middle English, Old French and Anglo-Norman); terms of art; argot; formal words; use of expressions with flexible meanings. 3. Legal English Because of the nature of law, the language of law has developed particular linguistic features lexical, syntactic and pragmatic to meet the demands of law and to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of law and its applications (Cao 2007, 20). Legal English style and lexicon originate in various languages: Anglo-Saxon, Latin and/or French. Legal language was originally oral; any writings served only as a report of the oral ceremony (Tiersma 1999, 36). It took quite a long time to accept the written texts as authoritative. Formbooks were written and their main effect was conservation of legal language, its terminology and phraseology. Although the ritualistic and the magical has disappeared from law, it has not disappeared from the language of law. The main vices of legal English are said to be its wordiness and excessive use of archaic words and constructions. In the last 50 years legal English underwent significant changes, mainly due to the Plain English Movement, but certain specifics persist. 3.1 Style Legal style results from cultural and legal traditions. Its chief characteristics are impersonality, extensive use of declarative sentences, negative and passive constructions. Mellinkoff (1963, 24) says the language of law has a strong tendency towards certain mannerisms such as being wordy, unclear, pompous and dull. Legal texts tend to use number of words instead of one (e.g. annul and set aside instead of annul;or totally null and void instead of void). Sometimes, they seem to contain a great part of text that seems to be devoid of meaning (as Mellinkoff puts it) such as using metaphors. Pomposity in the language of law may take many shapes especially by using words evoking respect (e.g. solemn, supreme, wisely). Pomposity and wordiness, together with long complex sentences and a lack of clarity of expression contribute to the dullness of the legal language. It has been already mentioned that the nature of legal language is among others performative. As Cao (2007, 21) writes, legal utterances perform acts, creating facts, rights and/or institutions: they are speech acts. Their performative nature may be marked by special words such as hereby and various performative verbs such as declare, undertake, promise etc. 3.1.2 Syntax Legal language is highly formal and impersonal. This is achieved by passive constructions, complex and long sentences, multiple negations and prepositional phrases (e.g. in what follows, by virtue of which). Legal English is full of archaisms and this tendency may be seen in the syntax as well. The old-fashioned syntax still makes the legal text dense, though mainly thanks to the Plain English Movement there can no longer be found grammatical archaisms like the old ‘-th endings (Alcaraz and Hughes 2002, 7) in legal texts. Slightly archaic tone is achieved by the use of certain prepositional phrases such as pursuant to (very often used in contracts) or subject to. A certain degree of sexism can also be found: e.g. judges calling judges of the same rank brethren. Although it is typical of legal language to consist of unusually long sentences, there is a specific area of it that is rather plain and surprisingly comprehensible. The first group is the syntax of statutes, contracts or pleadings; the second group is that of judicial summaries of particular facts of cases. Complexity of legal English documents may be seen in their layout, multiple subordination and postponement of the main verb until very late in the sentence (Alcaraz and Hughes 2002, 19). In legal texts such as statutes, contracts or handbooks containing procedural rules, many possible situations, factual scenarios and exceptions must be provided for (Alcaraz and Hughes 2002, 20) therefore the sentences are often conditional and contain hypothetical formulations. The illegibility of legal texts derives from the fact that originally legal texts were written from the far left side to the other side of the page to avoid the possibility of adding anything to the text. From this fact t he custom of avoiding punctuation is also derived: full stops, commas and semicolons may alter the meaning of the sentence. As Mellinkoff writes (1963, 367), lawyers are still reluctant to end a sentence, even though the old reasons for skimping punctuation are gone. 3.1.3 Lexis To deal with legal lexis it may be useful to systematize it. Alcaraz and Hughes (2002, 16-18) classify it as follows: 1. Functional items grammatical words and phrases that have no direct referents either in reality or conceptual; 2. Symbolic (or representational) items all the terms that refer to things or ideas in the world of reality. This group can be further divided into: purely technical terms, semi-technical terms and shared, common or â€Å"unmarked† vocabulary a) Purely technical terms: terms found exclusively in the legal sphere that have no application outside. They can be one-word terms (barrister) or whole phrases (bring an action). Some of the theorists argue that these terms are so closely related to the legal system that they cannot be translated, but only adapted. Therefore, a number of terms is often left untranslated (e.g. estoppel, trust) (Alcaraz and Hughes 2002, 17). b) Semi-technical or mixed terms: words or phrases that have acquired additional meaning in addition to their common meanings (issue, consideration). Their number is constantly growing to meet the developing needs of the society. c) Everyday vocabulary found in legal texts (paragraph, subject-matter). Legal English lexis especially the purely technical terms and semi-technical terms comes from various origins. Because legal English is a product of its history, various influences can be traced in contemporary legal language. The eldest part of the legal lexis is Anglo-Saxon such as bequeath, manslaughter, oath or writ.[2] Besides vocabulary, a typical Anglo-Saxon feature alliteration is to be found in legal English. Its usage is closely linked to the original magical nature of law but it can be still (and often) found in legal texts and seems to have acquired some kind of terminological value: rest, residue and remainder, to have and to hold, hold harmless etc. There are also Middle English words that nowadays survive only in legal language: aforesaid, thence, there- and here- words etc. (Mellinkoff 1963, 13). Despite the native origins of some of the most characteristic legal terms, legal English draws on numerous Latin or Latinized terms. There are dozens of phrases that still have their place in everyday legal discourse and because of their Roman Law origin they are often common to the Civil Law system as well (lex fori, bona fide, res iudicata, restitutio in integrum). Some of these phrases have their calque version that may be used alongside the Latin one (bona fide or good faith, mors civilis or civil death). Although numerous words of Latin, Anglo-Saxon or Viking origin may be found in legal English, it may be argued that the main influence for the development of legal language is to be attributed to Norman and later to French. French used to be once the language of the royal courts. Despite several attempts to return to legal English (for example the 1362 Statute of Pleading which although itself written in French forbade using French in lawsuits), French remained in use until 1731, when it was together with Latin banned from being used in legal proceedings. A vast amount of the most basic legal vocabulary is of French origin (appeal, complaint, evidence, judge, tort or verdict, and real law French words such as estoppel or alien in the sense of transfer). French influence may be also seen in some legal phrases following the French way of putting an adjective after the noun (attorney general, fee simple) or in creating neologisms by adding an -ee ending (lessee, condemnee) to a verb. From what has been just said might follow that legal English is not â€Å"English† at all, especially when considering that the word law itself is derived from the Norse word for â€Å"lay† and means â€Å"that which is laid down†. Although legal language seems to be very old-fashioned at first sight, lawyers can be quite creative when it suits their purposes (as Tiersma writes[5]) and can create neologisms such as palimony, zoning or hedonic damages. A special feature of legal English of Anglo-Saxon origin is the conjoined phrases or multinominal expressions. Some of them are alliterated as for example the rest, residue and remainder, some of them are not, such as last will and testament. These phrasesconsist of synonyms or near-synonyms. It has been argued that one of the justifications of such language behaviour is the never-ending quest for absolute precision. But as Mellinkoff says, this may not be the case: the phrase last will and testament is not as precise as plain will and when one of these words is used, the other is superfluous (Mellinkoff 1963, 331-332). Perhaps a more sound justification for the wordiness of legal English is derived from its adversarial nature. Tiersma says that â€Å"virtually any legal document is liable, at some point in its existence, to be picked apart by an opponent eager to exploit a loophole or ambiguity in hopes of wiggling out of an agreement or contesting a will. The question arising when dealing with these conjoined phrases is whether they really present a redundant overflow of words or whether they constitute a special kind of term. But an answer to this question would be outside the scope of this thesis. 4. Legal Czech Legal language is a specialized language of legal texts (Tomà ¡Ãƒâ€¦Ã‚ ¡ek 2003, 25). It is the main means of communication within law as a legal system. Communication between the legislator and the addressees of legal norms is carried out solely by language. It is mostly a natural language (the exceptions being for example road signs) and a standard language. Knapp (1988, 95) argues that there are non-standard languages of law as well, such as the spoken language of judges, or legal slangs, such as the law students speak). Legal Czech can be distinguished from the ordinary Czech especially with respect to its style. Knapp (1995, 120) distinguishes between three varieties of legal Czech: Language of laws (language of legislation) Language of courts (decision making) Language of lawyers (language of legal representation) It is typical of legal Czech that it originates from the language of legal norms the language of legislation. Legal norms regulate social relationships: they state what should be done (prescriptive function) as well as what is (descriptive function). The language of judicial decisions and the language of lawyers are basically derived from the language of legal texts. 4.1 Style Knapp (1988, 96) argues that there may not be a unified legal style because there are recognizable stylistic differences between the language of legal texts, lawyers speak or the language of theoretical legal texts. Basic stylistic requirements of legal texts may be listed as follows: precision definiteness brevity comprehensibility/understandability stability   inexpressiveness purposiveness Some of the points of this list of basic requirements quoted by Tomà ¡Ãƒâ€¦Ã‚ ¡ek (2003, 28) are developed later. a) Precision and Definiteness Precision seems to be the most important legal language requirement, not only with respect to legal Czech but other legal languages as well. To ensure legal certainty and the principle of equality in law, law must state all the rights and obligations of its subjects exactly and without doubt. This does not mean that all the legal expressions must be absolutely exact and precise: legal Czech is full of vague words, words with flexible meanings. This vagueness may not be a flaw in precise legal language. Expressions such as mà ­ra pÃ…â„ ¢imĆºÃƒâ€¦Ã¢â€ž ¢enà ¡ pomĆºrÃ…Â ¯m (degree adequate to the circumstances), znaÄ nà ¡ Ã…Â ¡koda (substantial loss), vĆºk blà ­zkà ½ vĆºku mladistvà ½m (an age close to the age of minors/juveniles), may be interpreted according to particular circumstances of the case. Relatively frequent use of these expressions in Czech legal texts may be explained by the nature of continental-system leg al norms. Czech legal norms (and continental legal norms in general) tend to be more general, often using vague expressions to leave their interpretation on courts. Common-law-system norms tend to be more casuistic and such vagueness of expression would be perceived as inadequate.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Unless used in legal theory and scientific legal writings, use of synonyms is forbidden. Although we may find such synonyms in the bulk of legal expressions, legislation usually chooses only one of them and keeps using it to avoid any misinterpretation. Here are some examples of such synonyms in legal Czech: zletilost plnoletost (legal age majority; only zletilost is a truly legal expression), zpÃ…Â ¯sobilost k prà ¡vnà ­m à ºkonÃ…Â ¯m svà ©prà ¡vnost (legal capacity; only the first expression is known to the legal texts)[7]. Contrary to the use of synonyms, the use of polysemes and homonyms is not that easily avoided. When such use is inevitable, the meaning of such expressions must be interpreted by context: nà ¡lez (finding) may refer to nà ¡lez Ústavnà ­ho soudu (Constitutional Courts ruling) or to nà ¡lez vĆºci opuÃ…Â ¡tĆºnà © (finding of a derelict), zapoÄ tenà ­ (inclusion) may refer to zpÃ…Â ¯sob zà ¡niku zà ¡vazku (a way of termination of an obligation), kompenzace (compensation) etc. b) Stability To regulate social relationships and to ensure legal certainty, legal terminology and style should be relatively stable. This does not mean that the meaning of the terms does not change from time to time. Stability means that one and the same term used in a legal text should denote one and the same thing (Knapp 1995, 125). It is typical of legal Czech to â€Å"normalize† certain words and phrases, to set firmly their meanings and way of usage (see for example Knapp 1978, 47-48). c) Comprehensibility/Understandability This requirement is closely connected to that of purposiveness and precision. Legal text should communicate its content clearly and without doubt to its addressees. The ideal of understandability is to make the addressee of the legal norm understand it in the same way as its creator (Knapp 1995, 126). In another work Knapp (1988, 99) argues that even people with no legal education are able to understand the text of a legal norm. The language of law is sometimes demonized but to understand the language of law in reality is not very difficult. The demand for popularization of legal language would suggest that people read legal texts on a daily basis: but this is not so. Whether we like it or not, law seems to be a complex system that has developed its terminology and to understand the law and its language needs a specialized education in the same way as medicine does. To simplify the language of law yes; to vulgarize it no. What people may not understand when reading a law or a contr act should be issues connected to law, not to language. 4.1.1 Lexis Legal Czech makes use of all classes of words except interjections. Words of various language origins are included: traditionally Latin, less often French and recently English. Legal Czech makes use of various Latin phrases which are even taught at law schools and are used relatively frequently in legal texts and in lawyers talk. These include phrases such as inter vivos (among the living), mortis causa (in case of death) or even whole sentences describing legal principles such as Ignorantia iuris neminem excusat (The ignorance of law does not excuse). With the growth of European Union legislation and numerous international contracts, English terms slowly find their way into legal Czech. Typically, these are words for which there is no Czech equivalent (due to the systemic differences, Chapter 5) and to avo