Vagueness and precision in contracts: a close relationship

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationship between linguistic indeterminacy and precision in legal texts (Endicott 2000, Bhatia et al. 2005, Cacciaguidi-Fahy / Wagner 2006) and, more specifically, it analyses how these aspects are conveyed in contracts, a specific type of legal document. The study offers a comparative description of contracts and other legal texts, with particular regard to the presence of vagueness and precision, and describes the linguistic strategies used to convey these elements. These aspects have been extensively studied, especially in texts that are characterized by a general applicability, such as laws, rules and statutes (Bhatia et al. 2005, Endicott 2000). The purpose of this study is, instead, to analyse the complexity of the relationship between vagueness and precision in documents that are not usually applicable to society as a whole, such as contracts. The analysis shows the coexistence and inter-dependence of elements such as linguistic indeterminacy and precision in contracts, even though these kinds of texts do not have to meet the need of conveying general applicability to the extent that laws, rules and statutes must.