Inside the Civil/ATL:

a linguistic analysis of the law is authorized

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the possible connection between Linguistics and Legistics, especially with regard to the use of verbs and the textual predilections of the normative writer. The aim is, moreover, to analyze the possibility of finding the most abundant linguistic pattern and, if it exists, to verify, through observation of the most recurrent paradigm in the municipal laws of the city of São Paulo published in the year 2022, in what way the predilection of the normative writer is consistent with the semantic values present in the chosen verbal expression. To this end, through the website named “Catálogo de Legislação Municipal”, all 153 (one hundred and fifty-three) municipal laws published in 2022 in the city of São Paulo were collected. Next, the command verbs of the menus and those in the caput of first article of the aforementioned laws were highlighted. Finally, the aforementioned laws were compared in order to analyze the possibility of the existence (or not) of a linguistic pattern in the display of command verbs present in the caput of the first article.