Patterning, regularity and variation in the EUSLEX Corpus on line

Abstract

Taking into considerations the findings from previous studies conducted by the Local research unit of Naples University Federico II within the 2002-04 PRIN Project Discourse in Domain-specific English, and searching the EUSLEX Corpus on line, this study explores further the relationship between text type and specific patterns in a selection of documents in EU legal discourse. Some aspects have been focused on with regard to text type: the adverbial hereby as an indicator of performativity and the role of ‘activity verbs’ in hereby-sequences; and the occurrence of shall after a sentence containing a hereby-sequence signalling a clear separation between impersonality and personalisation of the assigned obligation. shall has also been investigated with regard to specific patterning in prescriptive text types. Finally, a few examples of collocational patterns are provided as instances of recurrent patterning in EU legal language.