Językowe sposoby wyrażania przyczynowości w tekście prawnym (na przykładzie kodeksu karnego z 1969 r.)

Abstract

In the doctrine of penal law offences are divided into effective and ineffective ones. In the former case, a condition of bearing responsibility by the perpetrator is the existence of( causative-effective link between the act^. and criminal result defined by the law. Thus, the question of causality is very important in the doctrine of penal law. However, a question arises how the legislator expresses causality in legal texts, i.e. what are the linguistic methods of expressing it. The author of the article, on the basis of the Polish penal code, distinguishes three basic ways of expressing causality. The first method consists in expressing causa­lity by means of sentences built according to the pattern "p i _caus q". Another one consists in using the verb "cause" followed by an obligatory object denoting cri­minal result. Other verbs are also used to express causality but it is difficult to point to their special syntactic features. The author makes and considers a hy­pothesis that these verbs which contain a semantis component "cause" in their meaning are used to express causality and they may be found in provisions defining the types of effective offences,