Eaching the use of specific linguistic devices in the mediation of communication in legal texts: a case study of the statute of the University of Swaziland (the University of Swaziland Act, 1983)

Abstract

In this article, I argue that the use of existential sentences in legal texts as manifested in the Statute of the University of Swaziland is significant in that the ‘proposition of existence’ of the specified entities demands that the proposition culminates in the realisation of the existence of the said entities as enunciated in the statutory provisions. I also argue that the use of shall as a modifier in the context of statutory sentences is significant in helping readers determine how each of these statues has to be read and interpreted. I, therefore, conclude that an acceptable interpretation of these statutory sentences is the one that recognises the obligatory element in the enunciation that these entities exist as contemplated or envisaged. Each entity designated to exist has a role unequivocally assigned to it. This unequivocal assignment of specific roles to each of these entities is achieved by having the said entity modified by language structures such as adjectival prepositional phrases and adjectival relative clauses.

Keywords: Existential sentence, Existential subject, defining adjectival clause and Non-defining adjectival clause