Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2025)

<Previous Article In Volume
Next Article In Volume>

How the Use of Modal Verbs in Legal Texts Reveals the Impact of National Legal Cultures on Judicial Practice?

Pragmatic and Discoursal Comparative Studies of Tort Law Section in China and German Civil Code

Authors
Weige Shu1, *
1School of Foreign Languages, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, China
*Corresponding author. Email: 202205311119@smail.xtu.edu.cn
Corresponding Author
Weige Shu
Available Online 10 July 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-444-0_33How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Pragmatic analysis; Cross-cultural comparison; Philosophy of language; Legal culture
Abstract

Pragmatics directly reflects linguistic culture in narrative structures, clearly demonstrates differences in discourse logic across languages and reveals challenges in cross-cultural communication. Legal texts are the embodiment of national consciousness and ideology, reflecting each country’s unique understanding of law, authority, legitimacy, and rights. Comparative research on legal texts helps illustrate national linguistic and logical preferences, thereby facilitating better and deeper intercultural collaboration. In order to more clearly reveal the pragmatic features of modal verbs in the Chinese and German legal systems and their underlying legal cultures, this paper employs a textual review and pragmatic analysis of tort-related provisions in the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China and the German Civil Code. Drawing on jurisprudential and empirical legal literature from both countries, the study reveals how national ethical and theoretical frameworks are embedded in legislation. Finally, by examining recent legal interpretations and judicial decisions on related issues in both countries, the paper illustrates how the cultural and ideological backgrounds embedded in the texts influence judicial practice.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

<Previous Article In Volume
Next Article In Volume>
Volume Title
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2025)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
10 July 2025
ISBN
978-2-38476-444-0
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-444-0_33How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Weige Shu
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/07/10
TI  - How the Use of Modal Verbs in Legal Texts Reveals the Impact of National Legal Cultures on Judicial Practice?
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 305
EP  - 311
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-444-0_33
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-444-0_33
ID  - Shu2025
ER  -