GENERAL AND SPECIFIC TERMS

General terms and specific terms are not opposites, as abstract and concrete terms are;
instead, they are the different ends of a range of terms. General terms refer to groups; specific
terms refer to individualsbut there's room in between. Let's look at an example.
Furniture is a general term; it includes within it many different items. If I ask you to
form an image of furniture, it won't be easy to do. Do you see a department store display room? a
dining room? an office? Even if you can produce a distinct image in your mind, how likely is it
that another reader will form a very similar image? Furniture is a concrete term (it refers to
something we can see and feel), but its meaning is still hard to pin down, because the group is so
large. Do you have positive or negative feelings toward furniture? Again, it's hard to develop
much of a response, because the group represented by this general term is just too large.
We can make the group smaller with the less general term, chair. This is still pretty general
(that is, it still refers to a group rather than an individual), but it's easier to picture a chair than it
is to picture furniture.
Shift next to rocking chair. Now the image is getting clearer, and it's easier to form an
attitude toward the thing. The images we form are likely to be fairly similar, and we're all likely
to have some similar associations (comfort, relaxation, calm), so this less general or more
specific term communicates more clearly than the more general or less specific terms before it.
We can become more and more specific. It can be a La-Z-Boy rocker-recliner. It can be
a green velvet La-Z-Boy rocker recliner. It can be a lime green velvet La-Z-Boy rocker recliner
with a cigarette burn on the left arm and a crushed jelly doughnut pressed into the back edge of
the seat cushion. By the time we get to the last description, we have surely reached the
individual, a single chair. Note how easy it is to visualize this chair, and how much attitude we
can form about it.
The more you rely on general terms, the more your writing is likely to be vague and dull. As
your language becomes more specific, though, your meanings become clearer and your writing
becomes more interesting.
Does this mean you have to cram your writing with loads of detailed description? No. First,
you don't always need modifiers to identify an individual: Bill Clinton and Mother Teresa are
specifics; so are Bob's Camaro and the wart on Zelda's chin. Second, not everything needs to be
individual: sometimes we need to know that Fred sat in a chair, but we don't care what the chair
looked like.

GENERAL, SPECIFIC, AND ASSOCIATED WORDS

Ordinarily, the specific terms of a statute override the general terms. However inclusive may be
the general language of a statute, it will not be held to apply to a matter specifically dealt with in
another part of the same enactment.46 As with other canons, context can dictate a contrary
result.47 Another interpretational guide used from time to time is the principle noscitur a sociis,
that words grouped in a list should be given related meaning.48 A corollary, ejusdem generis,
instructs that, where general words follow an enumeration of specific items, the general words
are read as applying only to other items akin to those specifically enumerated.49 These
principles are probably honored more in the breach than in the acceptance, however. The Court
explained on one occasion that they are only instrumentalit[ies] for ascertaining the correct
meaning of words when there is uncertainty.50 A less charitable assessment is that the maxims
do not aid in ascertaining meaning or deciding cases, but rather serve only to classify and label
results reached by other means.51
(3) Unless a different intention is manifested,
(a) Where language has a generally prevailing meaning, it is interpreted in
accordance with that meaning;
(b) Technical terms and words of art are given their technical meaning when used
in a transaction in a technical field.
Where a law lists specific classes of persons or things and then refers to them in general, the
general statements only apply to the same kind of persons or things specifically listed.
EXAMPLE: if a law refers to automobiles, trucks, tractors, motorcycles and other motorpowered vehicles, "vehicles" would not include airplanes, since the list was of land-based
transportation.
SPECIFIC TERMS RECEIVE GREATER WEIGHT THAN GENERAL TERMS
Courts often say that, in interpreting a license or other contract, greater weight should be
given to specific or technical terms, than to general or abstract terminology. The specific
controls the general or, at least, serves to define its meaning. The comments to the Restatement
suggest a rationale:
People commonly use general language without a clear consciousness of its full scopeattention
and understanding are likely to be in better focus when language is specific or exact, and in case
of conflict the specific or exact term is more likely to express the meaning of the parties with
respect to the situation than the general language.
We are not convinced of the accuracy of this explanation. People often use general language
because they intend broad coverage. But the careful drafter should recognize the issue in putting

together a contract. The distinction between general and specific language arises in many
different ways. One involves contracts in which a general statement is followed by a list of
specific terms or coverage. Here, the problem can be twofold:
1. The general statement limits the list, while
2. The list may suggest a narrower meaning for the general statement.
This is part of drafting issue that arises whenever the draft uses a potentially unnecessary list of
words.