Tài liệu The development of english reflecting in english literature works and legal documents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW GRADUATION THESIS B.A. DEGREE IN ENGLISH Major: Legal English THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH REFLECTING IN ENGLISH LITERATURE WORKS AND LEGAL DOCUMENTS Supervisor : PHAM THI THUY DUNG, MA Student : TRAN QUYNH HOA Student ID : 1852202010025 Class : 100 – LE43A Ho Chi Minh City, 2022 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I consider it a great honour to be one of the students who are qualified to complete the graduation thesis, as I have always wanted to have a thorough study on the topic that I’m interested in. The process of completing the graduation thesis is a priceless journey. It is definitely not an enjoyable and pleasant time. Indeed, I was constantly nervous and self-conscious all the time. However, I felt so lucky when I was surrounded by supportive friends and family who supported me with unfailing encouragement. Therefore, I must devote this very first page to thanking these dearest people. First and foremost, I would like to express my genuine thankfulness to my supervisor, Mrs. Pham Thi Thuy Dung, for her invaluable advice and comforting words during the research process. I was so nervous and unconfident about my findings and even sometimes lost in such a large research field, but she always found ways to help me out with her sophisticated knowledge. I am so thankful for her guidance and patience with me during this journey so that the outcome came out successfully. Secondly, I am grateful for all the lecturers I have had the opportunity to study with during 4 years of university. They have delivered a great deal of invaluable knowledge, which generated the initial idea for this study and then became the fundamental knowledge to bring out such a detailed work. Moreover, I am especially thankful to have such a supportive family with my beloved Dad and Mom, who always have faith in me and support me unconditionally. Additionally, I owe special thanks to my friends Sang and Mei who have always stayed by my side, supported and encouraged me from afar. Furthermore, I would like to give my warm thanks to Cher for her comforting words and Thao Linh for her company during this challenging process. Finally, I would like to declare my gratitude towards other beloved ones that I cannot name in full. Without their constant support and inspiration, I would not be able to accomplish this precious experience. i LIST OF ABBREVIATION OE Old English ME Middle English e.ME Early Modern English AE American English BE British English a adjective n noun v verb ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Conceptual framework of the study ................................................................10 Table 2: Old English words that vanished .....................................................................18 Table 3: Old English words that survived .....................................................................20 Table 4: List of compounds in Beowulf .........................................................................21 Table 5: Functions of cases in grammatical inflections ................................................23 Table 6: Native words displaced by French vocabulary ...............................................27 Table 7: Old English vocabulary came from different foreign sources ........................29 Table 8: Origins of Middle English vocabulary ............................................................37 Table 9: Comparison of personal pronouns in OE and e.ME .......................................43 Table 10: Differences between British and American English vocabulary ..................49 Table 11: AE words that emerged into BE vocabulary during Modern English period .......................................................................................................................................52 Table 12: English borrowing words from other countries ............................................53 Table 13: List of archaic English, Latin terms and phrases in legal instruments of the International Law Handbook ........................................................................................61 Table 14: Summary of the development of English language and legal English language .......................................................................................................................................65 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................... i LIST OF ABBREVIATION ........................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1 1.1 Necessity of the study ............................................................................................1 1.2 Objectives of research ............................................................................................2 1.3 Research questions .................................................................................................2 1.4 Scope of the study ..................................................................................................3 1.5 Methodology ..........................................................................................................3 1.6 Structure of research ..............................................................................................3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................5 2.1 Definition of key terms and related literature ........................................................5 2.1.1 English language in general and English literature .......................................5 2.1.2 Legal language and legal documents ..............................................................6 2.2 Previous studies ......................................................................................................7 2.3. Conceptual framework ..........................................................................................9 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................12 3.1 Research questions ...............................................................................................12 3.2 Context and design of the study ...........................................................................12 3.3 Research instruments ...........................................................................................12 3.4 Analysis procedure ...............................................................................................13 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................15 4.1 Findings and discussion of results .......................................................................15 4.1.1. Historical background of general English language and its corresponding characteristics .........................................................................................................15 4.1.2. Historical background of legal English language and its corresponding characteristics .........................................................................................................56 4.1.3 The implication of acknowledgement of English origin changes on practical English learning process of linguistics students .....................................................64 iv 4.2 Summary ..............................................................................................................65 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ......................................................................................68 5.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................................68 5.2 Limitations of the study .......................................................................................68 5.3 Recommendations for further study .....................................................................69 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................70 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................. i APPENDIX I – Geoffrey Chaucer’s Merciless Beauty ............................................... i APPENDIX II – Shakespeare’s Macbeth ................................................................... ii APPENDIX III – John Donne’s The Sun Rising........................................................ iii APPENDIX IV – Robert Burns’ A red, red rose ....................................................... iv APPENDIX V – Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (Chapter 31: Involves a critical position) ........................................................................................................................v APPENDIX VI – Magna Carta 1215 – English version of Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School (2008) .............................................................................. vi APPENDIX VII – Article 48 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice 1945 ........................................................................................................................... vii v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Necessity of the study English has proved satisfactory to all the facets of a lingua franca since a large number of countries, including the world’s largest economies such as the United States, have officially confirmed English as their mother tongue, not to mention that this language has also become the standard language for international commercial and communication for decades. Besides, when it comes to global integration, the law serves a key role in maintaining world order, leading to the urgent need to learn the language of the law – legal English. The rapid growth of English, and especially legal English, has resulted in the growing demand for a large amount of learning materials which digs into this language to provide its learners with helpful guidance during the learning process. Specifically, legal English has long been a sophisticated field, which causes many troubles for the students who are interested in this very complicated field. During the learning process of legal English, even the learners who have a solid background on the English language might still encounter several difficulties. For example, it can be seen easily that the implications of the words in legal English totally do not depend on the common senses. Instead, to thoroughly know the use of legal terms in legal documents, the learners must have a great understanding of the archaic words, not only in its recent senses but also in the meanings from the original words dated a long while ago. Nevertheless, most of the recent English learners are ignorant of the past of the language they are learning. This is not troublesome to those who only need a language for daily communication or for dealing with modern commercial transactions, but it creates a significant problem for people with an interest in linguistics, particularly, students who have their majors in linguistic fields. According to the perspective of a Legal English student, there is a severe shortage found in studying materials introducing the history of the English language and its language of law. Thus, it is an urgency to contribute to the compilation of materials with quality research that can give linguistic students a better understanding and provide those who are in need of an interesting approach to the English language in general and Legal English in particular. 1 There are plenty of approaches to the development of a language, however, one of the most interesting and direct ways to get to know a language is through its literature, in which the language is presented in its most surreal manner. Additionally, the process of collecting illustrative examples by reading literary works then concluding the similarities as well as differences of the topic will be more inspiring and motivated than accessing the history of language by other academic approaches. By this way, the learning process would be much friendlier and easier for students who have not had a solid base in the linguistics field. Understanding the necessity of this problem, this thesis will conduct an intensive research on the English language development based on its legal background during each period, and bring out a great reference which helps those who are struggling and who have great enthusiasm in the English language and its special subset – legal English. 1.2 Objectives of research According to the previous reasons, this thesis includes several purposes. First of all, this research will provide a compendious history of the English language by the historical background of each period of development. Apparently, this will include the changes in the use of the English language, specifically in its lexicon and grammatical aspects. In the second place, this thesis will conclude a brief evaluation on the characteristics of legal English with the reference made in the historical events that interfered its development, which will all be clarified by some examples extracted from English legal documents over different periods. Thus, hopefully this essay will become an informative and useful source for other linguistic students and even those who are non-professional but having great interests in linguistics while creating a different and interesting approach to the language they are studying to have general knowledge of the development process of English language. 1.3 Research questions There are two expectations which should be answered after finishing this essay. The first question is “How did English originate and then change throughout the history reflecting in English literature works and legal documents?”. And then the research will help address the question “How does this kind of acknowledgement benefit practical 2 language learning process of linguistic students?”. Depending on these research questions, the final findings and results of this thesis will be closely attached to the aims of the study, which is to present a short history of the English language and legal English referencing in literature and legal texts written in this language. 1.4 Scope of the study There is a diversity of research carried out on the linguistic fields, however, this thesis will focus on two main categories: one of that is the English language used in the English literature works, and the other is the legalese employed in various legal documents written in English language. 1.5 Methodology Several research methods were used during the writing process to convey persuasive information about the topic. Firstly, the library research will be utilised to examine relevant papers and research to establish their utility, dependability, and authority in relation to the theme of English history. Secondly, a comparative method will be applied after thoroughly researching past studies and articles, comparing the findings to corresponding literature works and legal documents to understand how the English language has changed and how beneficial those changes have been. In addition to the preceding methods, the historical method will be used to depict various historical components in literary works and legal records of England. The combination of the aforementioned methodology in a reasonable and fluent manner will provide readers of this study with a comprehensive view of the history of English language formation based on the correlation between the development of the language used in literary works and legal documents through each historical period. 1.6 Structure of research This thesis consists of 5 chapters. Chapter 1: Introduction presents general background of the study such as the necessity, the objectives of the study, the research questions to the study and its methodology. The second chapter is Chapter 2: Literature Review, which provides a quick look at previous relevant studies as well as introducing the conceptual framework for this study. Then, the study’s methodology is discussed in Chapter 3: Methodology, which also gives readers a notion of the design and context of the study as well as the research instruments. The most important part of the study lies 3 in Chapter 4: Results and Discussion, which answers the research questions by findings throughout the researching process. Chapter 5: Conclusion will finish this thesis by giving a summary of the work carried out during the research, and propose some viable suggestions for further research, which may improve the limitations encountered when conducting this study. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Apparently, the terms of English and specifically legal English are getting more and more familiar for both native and non-native learners. Therefore, they should be introduced properly in this paper for better comprehension. In addition, there are two more notions that are worth mentioning in this essay, which are English literature and legal documents, since the English literary works and legal records serve as means to demonstrate the development process of English in general and legal English in particular. 2.1 Definition of key terms and related literature 2.1.1 English language in general and English literature For decades, English has been the global language. Although it is evasive and probably not instructive to characterise such a complex and sophisticated product of a long-term process of linguistic changes and variety in the very short word “English”, linguists also find various approaches to explain this term, either by geographical approach or technical approach. To the extent of geographical interpretation, Tim William Machan (Machan, 2013, p. 14) has once defined it by the geographic location of the language: “Equally limited as a determination of what is and is not English would be speakers’ geographic location, a criterion present since the Anglo-Saxon days of the Venerable Bede”. Later, in their book about this language, Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable (Baugh & Cable, 2005, p. 10) indicated that: “English presents a somewhat familiar appearance to anyone who speaks either a Germanic or a Romance language”. Meanwhile, other academics tend to use a more technical definition of the term “English language”. For instance, Rindal (Rindal, 2014, p. 1) believes that English language is “the codification of a language in dictionaries and grammars”. The Oxford Learner's Dictionary offers a more concise concept of it as “the language, originally of England, now spoken in many other nations and used as a language of international communication throughout the world”. All in all, it can be seen clearly that the concept of English is classified by its origin, which can be called a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, and represented by the specific sets of grammar 5 rules governing the use of this language as well as the great number of words developed and recorded throughout the development process. Next, when it comes to language study, literature is one of indispensable terms that needs discussion due to the intimate association of the two concepts. According to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, literature refers to pieces of writing that are valued as works of art, especially novels, plays, and poems (in contrast to technical books and newspapers, magazines, etc.). There are many scholars who had explained this term in different ways. As Said once stated in his work, “Literature was about the world, readers were in the world; the question was not whether to be but how to be, and this was best answered by carefully analysing language's symbolic enactments of the various existential possibilities available to human beings” (Said, 1982, p. 5). There is another explanation of literature by Wellek (Wellek, 1978, p. 20): “To speak sweepingly one can say, summarising, that in antiquity and in the Renaissance, literature or letters were understood to include all writing of quality with any pretence to permanence”. Prototypically, Jim Meyer (Meyer, 1997, p. 4) identified literary works in his article by some certain characteristics as “written texts”, “marked by careful use of language”, “in a Literary Genre”, “read aesthetically”, “intended by the author to be read aesthetically” and “contain many weak implicatures (are deliberately somewhat open in interpretation)”. Overall, literature can be defined by various approaches, however, it can briefly be understood as the written and creative products of writers in a specific language, which is, in this circumstance, in English. In short, all the poems, proses, plays, novels, short stories or any form of literary works written in English language are considered English literature. 2.1.2 Legal language and legal documents Bearing in mind the worldwide influence of English in recent years, English is also the language used by lawyers in several countries which set the first steps for the world's large legal systems such as the UK and the US. The specific term for this is legal language, or in some cases is called legalese. This annotation has been explained by numerous academics for its intricacy and complexity mostly in the legal jargons. It is said to be “Mysterious in form and expression, it is larded with law Latin and Norman French, heavily dependent on the past, and unashamedly archaic” (Peter & Richard, 6 2013, p. 1). This language of law, according to Williams (Williams, 2004, p. 111), legal language is “made up of several genres, each with its own specific, if often relate, characteristics”. In short, legal English is recognised as a unique branch of the English language, with complex sentence patterns, repetition, a representative of Latinisms, and ancient lexicon. To grasp a better understanding of legal English, it is significant that the meaning of “legal document” should also be discussed in depth since it serves as the best portrait for the evolution of this Legal language. “Legal document”, according to Collins dictionary, is “a document concerning a legal matter; a document drawn up by a lawyer” or “a legally valid document”. Therefore, legal documents can be understood as genres of written legal language to serve as means to deal with legal matters which are usually drafted by lawyers or legislators, for example, legal normative documents (law codes, acts, decrees, treaties, etc.) or contracts, bylaws, wills, leases and so on. 2.2 Previous studies As a Legal English student, one of the most frustrating aspects of the learning process is the scarcity of legal language analysis references (legalese). Meanwhile, it appears that English literature is a more attractive topic for scholars to research and present to their audiences. As a consequence, this section is the introduction of some phenomenal previous studies, which have become the inspiration for this graduation thesis. First of all, in terms of linguistic books, there are two renowned works that worth reading, one of which is George Yule’s Study of Language (7th edition)” (2020) and the other is A history of English language by Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable (2005). These books provide fundamental understanding of language and its formation and divide the detailed elements when getting to know a language: the origins of it and some key characteristics of the English language in specific periods of time. However, there are slight differences in the approach of each study. Study of Language provides a solid overview of a wide range of aspects in linguistics and points out not only the criteria that should be focused by the English language learners such as its grammar, syntax and phonology but also the analysis in the origin and historical overview of this language, which gives the audiences a wonderful chance to expose to the English language thoroughly by the linguistics approach. Meanwhile, the authors of A history of English 7 language relied mostly on the historical approach, dividing the book into smaller sections that corresponded to each historical epoch in the development of the English language. The history of English is vividly depicted over time as a result of this technique, and the authors of the book did an excellent job of pointing out the detailed variances in each era of time. Furthermore, as one of the subjects of this paper is literature, it would be a mistake not to mention the English Literature by William J. Long (2004). This is a fascinating and educational book for linguistic students who want to learn exemplary literary works from different periods, which play a significant role in reflecting the evolution of the English language by analysing the literature elements and examining the words used in each work mentioned in the book. Specifically, there are books that take the historical approach to the English language, such as the English Language: A Historical Introduction by Charles Barber, Joan C. Beal and Philip A. Shaw. This book aims to solve the problem of technical and narrow nature of learning English by taking research to its origin and the historical elements that affect the growing process of English language in linguistics. Thus, the purposes and approach of this study shares a lot in common with the aims of this thesis, which is about the brief history of the English language. However, there is some dedicated and outstanding research on a particular subset of English - the English legal language – which the author of this thesis has read as part of studying. First and foremost, Anna Schneiderová's scientific study Historical Background to English Legal Language is an important piece of work on the history of the English legal language. The author discusses the evolution of this type of language throughout history and offers readers changes in key eras in an attempt to explain why English legalese is so difficult to grasp and suggest solutions for the problem. Finally, Sir John Baker's masterpiece – An introduction to English Legal History (5th edition) – is a journey through the English legal system's history. By dividing the evolution of the English legal system into different periods, the study introduces the formation of English legal history as well as the concept of legal literature and provides instances to make the term clearer and more accessible to his readers. 8 In conclusion, those studies and books mentioned above presented a broad vision of the formation of the English language by approaching its grammar, and its vocabulary and showing differences in the characteristics of the language in each period. However, as means for disseminating knowledge and ideas, literature works have played a significant role in human civilization to store and display the trends of language use towards times. The shortage of references made by those articles and studies regarding both literature works and other written legal records may provide less convincing and informative articles to linguistic students who want a broader sense of knowledge in the linguistic field. Thus, the specific approach of combining both the literature elements and linguistics elements of representative literature works and legal records to illustrate the development of the English language will serve as a significant tool for those who wish to have an in-depth understanding of the splendid history of English language and the application of changes of the language in the system of English legal documents. 2.3. Conceptual framework Firstly, this thesis will divide the English language development into periods when the related literature in plain English language and legalese were published and make the comparison of the similarities and point out changes in the language over time. There are three key points worth mentioning in the perspective of linguistic development, according to the writer, which are historical backgrounds, the development of vocabulary, and finally the shift in the use of grammar. First and foremost, displaying sequences of events that happened in the past would be examined to show convincingly the changes in grammar and syntax of English as well as the introduction of new vocabulary throughout the process of development. In the next step, the vocabulary, and especially the focus on the word-formation will be discussed to express the development of this language in general and in legal discourse in particular as words play a crucial role in the formation of a language due to the duty of delivering what is conveyed in that language. Last but not least, the final point of comparison in this paper is made on Grammar and Syntax, because while vocabulary alone cannot express a meaningful sentence, it is the rules of Grammar that can put utterances in the correct order to form the meaning of language that are coherent and comprehensive. 9 Following those three aforementioned criteria is the timeline in which a brief history of the English language is recalled. By combining the valuable previous studies of coauthors Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dung's A course in British Literature and Sir John Baker's book An introduction to English Legal History (5th edition), it is easy to identify four major periods during which the English language underwent drastic changes., which began with the settlement of Anglo-Saxon people that set the first foundation of the language, right before the development of English made by Norman invaders throughout the Norman conquest. Subsequently, the English language was proved to be back to its prestige in the period called Early Modern English when it witnessed the Great Vowel Shift and got its own identity. And last but not least, the Modern English period started roughly before the reign of Queen Victoria from 1800 to the present brought glory to the English language, and clarified as well as emphasised the characteristics of this language. Finally, the works taken as concrete examples of the changes in the English language over time are split by the literature works in general and a system of particular legal documents as stated in the below figure. Literary works written in each of these periods will be divided into their sub-periods for more detailed understanding, and English legal documents should also stick to the flow of changes as above since the legal language is just a branch in a larger field called English, therefore, the big changes in the English language can also affect the English legal language itself. The following table describes the conceptual framework of this study: 10 Table 1: Conceptual framework of the study Works analysed Periods Sub-periods Legal documents In general Old English – AngloSaxons Middle English (Norman conquest) Early Modern English (The Great Vowel Shift) Modern English (Reign of Queen Victoria brought glory to English) 450 – 1066 Poem: Beowulf 1066 - 1485 Poem: famous poetry Geoffrey Chaucer – Merciless Beauty 1485 – 1603: The Elizabethan period (Renaissance) William Shakespeare – Macbeth 1603 – 1660: The 17th century period John Donne – The Sun Rising Magna Carta (1215) 1660 – 1798: the Restoration and the beginning of the Romantic period Robert Burns – A red, red rose International Law Handbook – Collection of Instruments – Book One (2017) 1798 – 1832: the Romantic Period Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice 1832 – 1901: The Victorian period Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist 1901 – present: The 20th century period James Joyce – Evelyn Historical Lexicon Grammar background In conclusion, this essay will discuss the history of the English language and provide a brief history of English legal language through the analysis of literature works and legal documents from particular phases based on three main considerations: historical context, vocabulary and word formation, and grammar and syntax use. This should demonstrate a solid understanding of the language we use on a regular basis. 11 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions First and foremost, this thesis is hoped to indicate the development process of English language and its legalese subset on the basis of analysis of English literature and legal documents through linguistic-based and historical-based access. By dividing the English language development into distinct periods, the history of English over the history will be effectively recapped. Subsequently, the second question of this study on how the development of English throughout history has supported the studying of English students. In particular, the learning process of legal English students will be answered by the evaluation of the improvements that are shown depending on the results of the previous research question. To summarise, this paper will make a consensus about the history of English and the impacts of language changes on its learners. 3.2 Context and design of the study Since this study is conducted by a legal English student, therefore, it is approached from 2 different perspectives which are linguistics and legal understandings. Both of these views will be clearly presented in order to provide readers with a better comprehension of the topic, and the specialised knowledge discussed in this study will be consulted thoroughly with the supervisor and other specialists in this field. The qualitative design will be used to answer the research question because it is the most appropriate for the study's purpose. In specific, to address the first research question, the first step in this study will be to examine and review literature as well as important papers, books, and studies on the history and formation of the English language. In the next step, the next research question of application of changes in English language into English teaching will be addressed by using a literature-based research approach to highlight the effects of linguistic elements in course books and in the language produced in literature works. Basically, this research mainly examines books, scientific journals, literature works, and any other important textual resources. 3.3 Research instruments In this study, several sources related to the thesis topic will be adopted throughout the researching process. Based on the qualitative nature of the study, the major research instruments adopted throughout the procedure are primarily studies relevant to the thesis 12 topic. Books, scientific articles, studies, and other sources of knowledge are summarised using online and offline libraries, as well as other internet searching engines like Google Scholar and ResearchGate. Besides, other supplementary references such as videos of lectures from will also be applied, there are also supplementary references such as video lectures from online courses regarding linguistics, historical or legal fields. By applying such instruments, the study will be supported with the most efficient and affordable means of gaining access to a large number of references from various experts all around the world. Overall, the existing research listed above, as well as the countless other studies discovered through this procedure, should be firmly and immediately related to the issue. 3.4 Analysis procedure The findings and results of this study are meticulously adhered to the research materials analysis procedure. In this study, three topics must be made apparent by two main steps, and each of them will be addressed through a review of multiple past works by several notable scholars. Clearly, the first step of this study is to determine certain historical periods showing significant changes in the English language, as well as the formation and evolution of English legal language. The prior research on the historical approach to English language in general and legalese will be used as references for the study in this initial step. In particular, based on the information gathered from the resources in both linguistics and legal language approaches such as A history of English language written by Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable – An introduction to English Legal History (5th edition) – by Sir John Baker, and other resources, the indispensable events relating to the formation and the shifts in the English language and its subset will be clearly presented in the findings of this study. Following that, comparisons will be made relying on three distinguished criteria namely historical background of each period, the vocabulary and formation of words and the grammar and syntax of English in each period of time. Apparently, this step will be carried out using a linguistics method, involving the application of many scientific inquiries and studies pertaining to the examination of language changes and the nature of language across time. Aside from a quick overview of original literature works listed 13 in the conceptual framework that serve as illustrations for the differences in language over distinct periods, this step will also include a thorough analysis of other linguistics experts' comments on language variation, such as George Yule's Study of Language (7th edition) or William J. Long's English Literature (2004). Simultaneously, the changes in legal English will also be brought into discussion by analysing renowned works over time. Unlike English literature works, legal English will only be evaluating in three distinct records as the old copies of English legal documents in the past are hard to find as well as difficult to comprehend due to huge differences in the language used, therefore the examples of legal English will not be mentioned in this essay in parallel with the timespan exploited in the English literature works section. Instead, the changes through history of legal language will be depicted by referencing the interpretation of the International Law Handbook (Book One) issued by the United Nations in 2017 compiling various international conventions and treaties and containing exemplary legal terminology. Thus, the changes in the characteristics of English language and legalese throughout history will be described thoroughly, which will set the stage for carrying out the final step. Some commentary will be produced based on the outcomes of the preceding steps in order to gain a clearer insight of the growth of the English language as well as its application in the English learning process of other students. Courses of English language and legalese will also be stated in relation to the approach of the course books and lectures reflecting the nature of English language and legal language, thanks to the comparisons made, and that will be the end of the research findings. Overall, this research will take the shape of a library-research essay, using a literaturebased approach and multiple research methodologies to examine the variations in the English language over time. As a result, those previously indicated methods will lead to persuasive outcomes in the following chapter. 14