Code glosses in the European Union’s legislative documents : corpus analysis of the English and Croatian DGT Translation Memory parallel corpus

Peršurić Antonić, Marina (author)

This study examines code glosses, i.e. a category of metadiscourse that clarifies or exemplifies content, in the EU’s legislative corpus, using the English and Croatian DGT Translation Memory parallel corpus (Steinberger et al., 2012). Code glosses enhance coherence and reader comprehension by reformulating or elaborating arguments, which is especially useful in legal texts, yet their use in such texts remains understudied compared to the academic genre. Employing Sketch Engine for automated extraction and manual analysis, the research reveals nuanced differences in the frequency and form of code glosses between English and Croatian legislative texts (in Croatian code glosses are used slightly less, but certain code glosses, such as colons, are used more frequently), reflecting the tendency to keep the structure of the original text in translations. These findings contribute to a better understanding of cross-linguistic textual adaptation in legislative contexts. Future work will explore other metadiscourse categories and their impact on reader comprehension in legal contexts.

• Language: English
• Keywords: code glosses, metadiscourse, linguistic accessibility
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 30.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 210-233
• Numbering: Letn. 13, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-180320
• UDC: 81:34.042
• ISSN on article: 2335-2736
• DOI: 10.4312/slo2.0.2025.2.210-233
• COBISS.SI-ID: 266516483
• Publication date in RUL: 06.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Slovenščina 2.0 : empirične, aplikativne in interdisciplinarne raziskave
• Publisher: Trojina, zavod za uporabno slovenistiko, Trojina, zavod za uporabno slovenistiko, Trojina, zavod za uporabno slovenistiko, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2335-2736
• COBISS.SI-ID: 264547328

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Pojasnjevalni izrazi v zakonodajnih dokumentih Evropske unije

Abstract

Študija se posveča rabi pojasnjevalnih izrazov (code glosses) kot kategoriji metadiskurza, ki pojasnjuje ali ponazarja vsebino, v zakonodajnem korpu­su EU, in sicer z uporabo vzporednega korpusa DGT Translation Memory za angleščino in hrvaščino (Steinberger idr., 2012). Pojasnjevalni izrazi povečujejo kohezijo in razumljivost besedila z reformulacijo ali dodatno razlago argumen­tov, kar je še posebej uporabno v pravnih besedilih, čeprav je njihova uporaba v teh besedilih manj raziskana kot v akademskem diskurzu. Z uporabo orodja Sketch Engine za samodejno ekstrakcijo in ročno analizo raziskava razkriva niančne razlike v pogostosti in obliki pojasnjevalnih izrazov med angleškimi in hrvaškimi zakonodajnimi besedili. Rezultati kažejo, da so v hrvaščini ti iz­razi nekoliko redkejši, vendar se določene vrste, npr. dvopičja, pojavljajo po­gosteje, kar odraža težnjo po ohranjanju strukture izvirnega besedila v prevo­dih. Ugotovitve prispevajo k poglobljenemu razumevanju jezikovnosistemske prilagoditve besedil v zakonodajnem kontekstu.

• Keywords: pojasnjevalni izrazi, metadiskurz, jezikovna dostopnost