Non-Finite Adverbial Clauses in English Legal Texts and Their Realizations in Arabic

Non-finite adverbial clauses in English legal texts and their Arabic realizations are investigated in this paper. Basically, this work accounts for the phenomenon of non-finiteness in terms of the extent to which English non-finite adverbial clauses are frequent, and in terms of whether these clauses are realized by finite or non-finite clauses in Arabic. When the English non-finite clauses are realized by Arabic non-finite clauses, the latter clauses are examined to point out whether they are realized by اسم الفاعل (infinitive), المصدر الموول (verbal noun), المصدر الصريح (active participle), or اسم المفعول (passive participle). As for the data of the study, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the legal text this study investigates for the non-finite adverbial clauses. The study covers the -ing adverbial clauses, to-infinitive adverbial clauses, and -ed adverbial clauses only. The bare infinitive clauses are excluded because they cannot function as adverbial clauses. As far as the frequency of non-finite adverbial clauses is concerned, the study shows that the -ing adverbial clauses and to-infinitive clauses are quite frequent in the data of the study. Less frequent than these clauses are the -ed adverbial clauses. As for the realizations of these clauses in Arabic, it is found that the non-finite -ing clauses and -ed clauses are more frequently realized by finite clauses than by non-finite clauses in Arabic. Conversely, the non-finite to-infinitive clauses are more frequently realized by non-finite clauses than by finite clauses in Arabic.