Language Acceptability of Texts in Legal Education: A Case Study from the Perspective of LCT Semantic Density

Abstract

Language acceptability can be defined as the interaction of complexity and context-dependence of meanings, or semantic density and semantic gravity in Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). This study explores language acceptability in legal education through the lens of semantic density in LCT. Using an American judicial opinion as the data, this study demonstrates how language acceptability can be explored at three levels—text, sentence and word through the analysis of semantic density. The dynamics of language acceptability is also taken into account. This study can serve as a reference for evaluating the language acceptability of legal texts, thereby offering a tool for teaching legal language.