Situació actual del llenguatge administratiu en llengua catalana

Resum

Given the diversity of end users to whom the texts and documents produced by the three powers of government are addressed, the author of the present study considers it more appropriate to use the phrase "juridical languages," rather than "juridical language," to designate the normative, administrative and judicial technolects. The kind of legal language being analyzed, as a communication tool between the administration and the people, ought to be formal and functional. The current situation of the Catalan administrative language is the result of a complex evolutionary process, limited in this article to the years 1981-1995. It has been a process of creation, following the important medieval juridical tradition, and it has entailed a constant effort to neutralize the influence of the Castillian administrative language, which is rhetorical and anachronistic. The essay presents a series of specific aspects of administrative written language that, thanks to a firm commitment to modernity, has managed to make itself largely prevalent vis-à-vis the formulas of Castillian influence, which were common in earlier Catalan texts. The structure of the different documents, the impersonality and formality of administrative exchanges, the verbal uses, the neutralizing of sexist uses, as well as the terminology, are issues that are analyzed in terms of evolution and change. It is considered likely that the future of administrative Catalan will follow the patterns already in use, while at the same time it is expected that the stylistic uses hereby presented will become pervasive in administrative documents both in the Generalitat and in municipal governments. In closing, the author refers to the revision of the documentation of judicial proceedings, following the line of structural rationalization and stylistic simplification, in order to attain in the medium term complete language normalization for Catalan in all spheres of jurisdictional activity.