Linguistic examination of a business text helps describe expressed intentions, conditions, forms of address and ambiguous wording. It does not replace legal interpretation of a contract or assessment of the parties' obligations.

Subject of examination

  • Letters, messages and the sequence of correspondence
  • The wording of contracts and appendices
  • Terms, cross-references, conditions and the context of agreement

Sample questions for the expert

  • What meaning is expressed by the disputed wording within its surrounding text?
  • Which subject or condition does the pronoun, reference or proviso relate to?
  • Does the phrase permit more than one linguistic interpretation, and why?
  • What intentions and communicative acts are expressed in the correspondence?

The final questions are formulated according to the objects and circumstances of the particular task.

What to prepare

  • The complete chain of letters or messages, with attachments
  • All relevant versions of the document and appendices
  • The chronology of agreement and the exact disputed wording
  • Questions from the court or a party, and existing reports

How the examination is conducted

Syntactic relationships, meanings of terms, conditions and the sequence of messages are analysed. The distinction between directly expressed content and an inference based on external circumstances is taken into account.

Scope and limitations

The linguist does not determine the validity of a transaction, the existence of a debt or an obligation to perform a contract. Authenticating correspondence and recovering deleted messages are technical tasks.

What the deliverable records

The deliverable explains possible linguistic readings and the basis for each, without substituting for a legal assessment of the parties' relationship.

Cost and terms

from RUB 50,000. The exact cost depends on the volume of material, number of questions, urgency and need for a combined examination.

How ambiguous wording is analysed

When there is disagreement over the meaning of a letter or a clause, it is useful to begin by writing out the exact wording and the two proposed readings. The next step is to check which words, grammatical relationships and references support each. The general statement that a phrase can be understood in different ways does not yet explain why the readings differ.

The sequence of remarks is significant in business correspondence. A condition in a reply may relate to a proposal in a previous email, and a pronoun may refer to one of several named objects. An individual message is therefore compared with the relevant exchange and attachments. Whether the agreement was actually performed cannot, however, be established solely by linguistic analysis of the phrase.

  • The subject to which the disputed reference may relate is identified.
  • A proposal, request, agreement, refusal, assumption and statement of fact are distinguished.
  • Conditions, provisos, negation and the limits of the wording's application are checked.
  • Where there are multiple versions, the text to which the question relates is identified.

The deliverable should explain the possible linguistic interpretations and the grounds for distinguishing them. The text must not be silently supplemented with an intention that is not stated in the correspondence. If choosing a reading depends on an external circumstance, that circumstance is identified separately. Decisions on the existence of an obligation, validity of a transaction or consequences of the parties' conduct remain matters of legal assessment.