The Linguistic Expressions of Danshu (Provisos) in Chinese Laws

In legislative texts, proviso is used to provide for exceptions or to add certain conditions to the provisions in the main clause. In Chinese legislative texts, proviso is called danshu, for it is initiated by the words dan/danshi. The linguistic expressions of danshu have not been fully described. This study, based on a self-built mini-corpus of danshu of Chinese legislative texts, aims to de-scribe the linguistic expressions of danshu, summarize the syntactic patterns and core words thereof, and explain the reasons. This study will shed light on the normalization of Chinese legislative texts, especially the linguistic expressions of danshu, improve the quality of Chinese legislation, and enrich the study of provisos in legislative texts other than those in English language.


Introduction
Variability is inherent in human language: people use different linguistic forms on different occasions, and different speakers of a language will say the same thing in different ways. Most of this linguistic variation is highly systematic (Biber & Conrad, 2009: p. 4). For example, the subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) focuses on description of the language used in registers and genres from a particular profession or academic discipline, with its goal of developing instructional materials that will help students learn the particular language patterns that are typical for the different situations and different kinds of texts in those fields (Biber & Conrad, 2009: p. 3). 1 The words "the People's Republic of China" is omitted in the names of Chinese laws in this study. legislative sentences, but it provides a logical or semantic framework for legislative sentences. Therefore, the general structure of English legislative sentence is "If x, then Y shall be (or do) Z" (Tammelo, 2012: p. 86).
Based on the analysis of Chinese legislative provisions , Pan Qingyun (2004;2017: pp. 189-190) proposed two logical structures of legislative sentences: 1) condition + legal subject + legal action; 2) condition + subject + action + sanction. The first logical structure is applicable to the legislative sentences of compulsory and authorization legal norms. The condition in logical structure corresponds to the assumption of legal norms. The second logical structure is the standard format of prohibitory normative legislative sentences. Comparing the two structural patterns, it can be found that both consist of condition, legal subject and legal action, and sanctions only in the second logical structure. Therefore, this study integrates the two logical structure models of Professor Pan into one structural model, and takes sanctions as the option, that is, the logical structure of legislative sentences is condition + subject + action + (sanction).

The Classification of danshu
Legal norms, according to their content, can be divided into three types, namely authorization norms, obligatory norms and compound norms (Zhang, 2018: pp. 117-118). Authorization norms grant the freedom to people who can act or not or require others to act or not, and they are usually expressed with the words "may", "be entitled to", "enjoy the freedom" etc. The freedom of conduct stipulated by the authorization norms can be divided into two subclasses, namely negative freedom and positive freedom (Zhu & Ye, 2015: p. 248). Obligatory norms, including negative obligation and positive obligation, directly require people to act or not to act. Positive obligation are often expressed with the words "shall", "must" etc., while negative obligation with the words "shall not", "prohibit" etc., or add adverse legal consequences to the description of behaviors. The compound norms refer to those that grant freedom and require obligations simultaneously, and most of which are about the organization and activities of state organs.
In terms of content, danshu include three types of legal norms, which are used to guide the conduct of legal subject (Sun, 2006: p. 136), similarly, danshu can also be divided into "authorization danshu", "obligatory danshu" and "compound danshu".
As for the function, Black's Law Dictionary (11th Edition) points out that a proviso is to propose condition, exception or addition (Garner, 2019: p. 1481). Zhou Wangsheng (1998 summarizes five functions of danshu: First, to seek the common ground while reserve difference; second, to seek the degree by applying restriction; third, to seek perfection in the way of saving deviation; fourth, to seek comprehensiveness and appropriateness by addition; and fifth, to make the special provisions conspicuous, clear, emphasized and distin-

The Linguistic Expressions of danshu
The pragmatic environment of danshu is "main clause plus danshu". Zhou Wangsheng (1991: pp. 57-58) divides danshu into six types: 1) to express exclusion, with such sentence pattern as dan/danshi ... chuwai (but ... except); 2) to express authorization, such as dan/danshi ... keyi (but ... may); 3) to express requirements, such as dan/danshi ... yingdang (but ... shall); 4) to express commands, such as dan/danshi ... bixu (but ... must); 5) to express prohibition, such as dan/danshi ... bude (but ... shall not); 6) to express negation, such as dan/danshi ... bu renwei (but ... not consider). Luo Huiting and Wang Shan (2018) makes statistics on the expressions of danshu and finds that there are 19 forms of danshu initiated by the word dan, and 27 forms by danshi. But the study does not classify and systematize the various forms of danshu. Zhou Wangsheng's six types of danshu mix the types of legal norms (i.e., authorization, requirement and prohibition), function of danshu (i.e., exclusion) and sentence types (i.e., imperative and negation), which are somewhat confusing. What's more, Zhou's study gives a few instances of danshu. Luo Huiting and Wang Shan (2018) adopt quantitative research method, but it does not connect the expressions of danshu with the classification of legal norms. This study aims to investigate the linguistic expressions of danshu based on their specific types.

The Analytical Framework of danshu
According to Black's Law Dictionary (11th Edition), Zhou Wangsheng (1991;1998: pp. 486-487), and Zhang Wenxian (2018: pp. 117-118) 3 , the danshu in Chinese laws can be classified into four types: authorization danshu, obligatory danshu, compound danshu, and exclusive danshu. The exclusionary danshu include three subclasses, namely exclusion of the situations, the objects 4 and the subjects 5 respectively; the authorization danshu include two subclasses of positive freedom and negative freedom; the obligatory danshu include two subclasses of positive obligations and negative obligations; and the compound danshu will 3 Authorization norms, compulsory norms and compound norms are classified from the content of legal norms. As a special legal norm, danshu (proviso) shares the same characteristics of legal norms. In addition, one of its important functions is to exclude the application of certain legal rules to certain situations, subjects or objects. In this study, the exclusionary danshu is regarded as a subclass. 4 The objects refer to the intermediary between the obligee and obligor, and the objects of the rights and obligations thereof (Zhang, 2018: p. 157). 5 The subjects refer to the person who enjoys rights and performs obligations in legal relationship, including natural person, legal person, state, state organ and other subjects (Zhang, 2018: pp. 155-156

Research Questions
1) What is the overall use of danshu in Chinese legislative texts? 2) What are the linguistic expressions of various types of danshu? 3) What is the development trend of the linguistic expressions of danshu?

The Number of danshu in Chinese Laws Is Relatively Small
There are 7087 articles in the 62 laws, but only 587 sentences with the words danshi/dan. Among which only 542 instances of danshu, 45 non-danshu instances are excluded. It is obvious that the number of danshu is relatively small (see Table 2). Zhou Wangsheng (1998: pp. 493-494)   technology is not well developed, and the legislators are not used to danshu for the completeness and perfection of legal documents. Obviously, the small number of danshu is deeply influenced by the concept of "Legislation should be rough rather than fine" in specific historical period of China (Liu, 2016: pp. 346-348). At the beginning of the reform and opening up, many social relations are in the process of change. The legislative work at that time was of great exploratory characteristics, and it was difficult to take into account the details. This can be seen from the words Trial and Interim in the names of many laws and regulations at that time. After 40 years of reform and opening up, China's social relations have been basically stable, the legislative experience has become increa-Open Journal of Modern Linguistics singly rich. After the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has been formed, we can now carve out the law calmly (Liu, 2016: pp. 347-348), and danshu is an important tool for the elaborating of legislative provisions. There are 323 instances of exclusionary danshu, accounting for 60% of the total. Among them, 282 instances exclude the situations, 34 instances the objects, and 7 instances the subjects (see Table 3 below).This shows that the main function of danshu is to exclude the application of some legal rules to specific situation, objects and subjects.

When a situation Is Excluded, danshu Is Expressed by Syntactic Pattern of danshi, ... de chuwai
This study finds 282 instances of danshu excluding situation, accounting for 87% of the total number of exclusionary danshu, 82% of which is expressed by syntactic pattern of danshi, ... de chuwai (see Table 3). For example: (1) ... 但是，其配偶再婚或者向婚姻登记机关书面声明不愿意恢复的除外。 (《民法典》第 51 条) ... except where the spouse has married to someone else or states in writing to the marriage registration authority the unwillingness to resume the marriage.
(Article 51 of Civil Code) In (1), "qí pèi ǒu ... de" is a de phrase, composed of an auxiliary de attached to a content word or phrase, which is a noun phrase, and can be used to designate people and objects, and thus can be used to function as the subject and the object grammatically (Huang & Liao, 2011: pp. 50-51).
In legislative texts, the case element of legal norms is usually expressed by de phrase, and the legal sentences in Chinese laws can be generally expressed as (NP1) + VP1, + (NP2) + VP2 (Hu & Jiang, 2016). The de phrase can refer to self-designation and transferred-designation (Zhu, 1983). There are two kinds of internal structure of de phrase. The first is "[NP + VP] + de", and it regards the de phrase as a noun phrase (Zhou, 2002). The second is "NP + [VP + de]", in which "VP + de" is a post relative clause to modify the noun head (Dong, 2003).
Most of the post relative clauses of de phrase can be converted into its prepositional form with the meaning basically unchanged. The de phrase has been an effective and unique expression tool by legal drafters in the past half century in China. It has completely replaced the word zhe (者) in the old legislative texts (Zhang, 2015).
As Danshu is a special legal norm (Zhou, 1991), so it also consists of three elements of assumption, treatment and sanction (Zhou, 1998: pp. 485-486). In the exclusionary danshu, the de phrase is usually used to exclude the application of certain legal rules in specific situations, such as: (2) 对于认罪认罚案件，人民法院依法作出判决时，一般应当采纳人民检 察院指控的罪名和量刑建议，但有下列情形的除外： duì yú rèn zuì rèn fá àn jiàn, rén mín fǎ yuàn yī fǎ zuò chū pàn jué shí, yī bān yīng dāng cǎi nà rén mín jiǎn chá yuàn zhǐ kòng de zuì míng hé liàng xíng jiàn yì, dàn yǒu xià liè qíng xíng de chú wài: The people's court shall generally adopt the charges and sentencing recommendations by the people's procuratorate when making judgment on a case to which the accused admits his guilt, with the exception of the following circumstances: (Article 201 of Criminal Procedure Law) In (2), the danshu uses de phrase to exclude the five situations listed below the main clause, which makes the provisions more legible and orderly.
In legislative texts, sometimes NP in de phrase "NP + VP + de" can be omitted, that is, "VP + de" is used to refer to the person who carries out the act, which is transferred-designation in use. For example: Open Journal of Modern Linguistics In (3), the de phrase refers to any person who has intentionally injured another person's body. The de phrase refers to the categorized people or things, behavior, nature, degree and the like, and most of them are associated with derogatory meanings. It has become a necessary language material for assumption element in legal norms (Sun, 2006: p. 90). In Criminal Law, almost all the assumption elements are expressed by de phrase.
It is found that the danshu for exclusion can also be expressed by syntactic pattern of danshi, ... de, yizhao... (
A notarial certificate shall be issued to the party concerned within 15 working days... However, in case of force majeure, providing supplementary materials or the need to verify the relevant circumstances, the time required shall not be included in the time limit. (Article 30 of Notarization Law) In (7), the objects, namely "the time required in case of force majeure, for providing supplementary materials or the need to verify the relevant circumstances" are excluded.
If, after being notified by the people's court, a witness fails to testify in court without justified reasons, the people's court may compel the witness to appear in court, with the exception of the spouse, parents and children of the defendant. (Paragraph 1 of Article 193, Criminal Procedure Law) The danshu in (8) excludes the subjects, specifically the spouse, parents and children of the defendant.

The Authorization danshu Are Expressed by Syntactic
Where a middleman fails to facilitate the conclusion of a contract, he may not request the payment of remuneration, but may request the client to pay for the necessary expenses incurred in the intermediary activities in accordance with the agreement. (Article 964 of Civil Code) (10) 被告在作出行政行为时已经收集了证据，但因不可抗力等正当事由不 能提供的，经人民法院准许，可以延期提供。(《行政诉讼法》第 36 条第 1 款) bèi gào zài zuò chū xíng zhèng xíng wéi shí yǐ jīng shōu jí le zhèng jù, dàn yīn bú kě kàng lì děng zhèng dāng shì yóu bú néng tí gòng de, jīng rén mín fǎ yuàn zhǔn xǔ, kě yǐ yán qī tí gong.  (9) and (10) are expressed by danshi, keyi ... and danshi ... de, keyi ... respectively. From the perspective of linguistic expression, the difference between the two forms lies in the use of de phrase, which can be attributable to the assumption element of legal rules. When danshu shares the same assumption element as that of its main clause, it usually takes the form of danshi, keyi..., as in example (9). When the assumption element in danshu differ from that of its main clause, it usually takes the form of danshi ... de, keyi..., where de phrase functions as assumption element, as in example (10).
The partnership businesses shall be jointly managed by all partners. One or more partners may be authorized to manage the partnership business in accordance with the partnership contract or the decision made by all partners; and the other partners shall cease to manage the partnership business, except that they have the right to supervise the management. (Paragraph 2 of Article 970, Civil Code) In addition, there are 4 danshu indicating positive freedom are expressed in other syntactic patterns, such as danshi ... de, huifu..., and dan ... zhineng ..., etc.
Where a civil aircraft causes damage to another person, the operator of the aircraft shall bear tort liability, provided that the operator shall not assume any Open Journal of Modern Linguistics liability if it can be proven that the damage is intentionally caused by the victim.
The victim may directly bring a lawsuit against the insurer or the guarantor only under the following circumstances, but it does not hinder the victim's right to bring a direct action in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations on the insurance contract or the security contract. (Article 168 of Civil Aviation Law) Among the words used to grant rights and authorize power, the most frequent and stable words are keyi (may), youquan (have the right), and xiangyou (enjoy) etc., and among which the word keyi is most widely used (Liu, 2018: pp. 114-115).
No other construction projects or blasting, drilling, excavation and other op-Open Journal of Modern Linguistics erations shall be carried out within the scope of protection of cultural relics protection units. But it is necessary to ensure the safety of the site to be protected for its historical and cultural value, and shall be approved by the people's government which has approved and published the site for protection of its cultural relics, and prior to approval, the consent of the administrative department for cultural relics of the people's government at the next higher level shall be obtained. The approval of the people's Government of a province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government must be obtained, and prior to approval, the consent of the administrative department for cultural relics under the State Council shall be obtained. (Article 17 of Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics) The danshu in example (14) is expressed by danshi, yingdang ... and danshu in example (15)  dǒng shì huì chéng yuán yóu guó yǒu zī chǎn jiān dū guǎn lǐ jī gòu wěi pài; dàn shì, dǒng shì huì chéng yuán zhōng de zhí gōng dài biǎo yóu gōng sī zhí gōng dài biǎo dà huì xuǎn jǔ chǎn shēng.
The members of the board of directors shall be appointed by the state-owned assets supervision and administration institution; however, the employee representatives among the members of the board of directors shall be elected by the staff congress of the company. (Paragraph 2 of Article 67, Company Law) The danshu indicating positive obligations are often expressed by the terms yingdang (shall), yinggai (shall), bixu (must), etc. (Zhang, 2018: p. 118;Xu & Bian, 2017: p. 303). However, there are some differences in the degree between the term yingdang and bixu, so the latter must be used in some circumstances (Liu, 2007: pp. 119-120). This study finds that danshu indicating positive obligation are mainly expressed by syntactic patterns of danshi, yingdang... and fewer instances by danshi, bixu ... and danshi, yizhao..., etc. The term yingdang in ethics refers to the provisions required by morality (Editorial Board, 2010: p. 2280).
When it is necessary to auction the mortgaged real estate, the newly added houses on the land may be auctioned together with the mortgaged property in accordance with the law, but the mortgagee has no priority to be compensated for the income from the auction of the new houses. (Article 52 of Law of Urban Real Estate Management) When people are asked not to carry out certain behavior, the negative obligations are usually expressed by core terms of bude ... (may not) and jinzhi ...
(prohibit) etc. (Xu & Bian, 2017: p. 304). Zhang Wenxian (2018: p. 118) also points out that the terms bude, jinzhi and yanjin (prohibit) etc. are employed to express negative obligations, or the adverse legal consequences are added after describing the behavior mode. This study finds that danshu indicating negative obligations are most widely expressed by syntactic pattern of danshi/dan, bude... In a word, among the terms in legislative texts, some core terms are necessary to play the dominant role. Core terms are the most widely used linguistic materials for the expression of legal norm, which support the framework of legislative texts (Liu, 2018: p. 114). According to Gong Mingyu et al. (2020: pp. 348-349), it takes a fairly long time for the deontic terms keyi, yingdang and bude to establish a dominant share in the expression of rights and obligations respectively, and they takes this dominant place in 1990, 1991 and 1990 respectively. No matter what the specific form is, the core terms can be used to express the same meaning, but the form should be adjusted according to the content and context of legislative texts (Liu, 2018: pp. 115-116).

The Disyllabic Tendency of the Introductory Words of danshu
First, the use and function of the words dan and danshi are basically the same. In modern Chinese, the words dan and danshi are basically the same in use ... (Zhang, 2001: p. 131). In modern legislative texts, both dan and danshi can be