Abstract
The ability to read and understand what is written is critical to the success of any communication activity. This paper is a study of the use of grammatical devices for inter-sentence connection in selected Nigerian legal and sports documents with a view to identifying the devices used in the two registers, determining the relative frequency with which they are used, examining the variability in usage and offering explanations for any differences in the use of the grammatical devices. The study is anchored on Reader-Response/Transactional theory. The data used were drawn from a selected legal document and a sports document. The texts were analyzed using four categories of grammatical devices, namely: discourse reference, substitution, ellipsis and logical connectors. Thestudy reveals that discourse referring devices of personal pronouns and determiner types were predominantly used in the texts reviewed. It is quite apparent from the data that the need to avoid the possibility of being misinterpreted calls for the use of discourse reference devices by legal draftsmen and news writers. The study, thereafter, concludes that a considerable degree of knowledge of grammatical devices is desirable for professionals specifically in legal and sports fields to present ideas and facts comprehensively.
Keywords: comparative, grammatical,
devices, legal, documents.
