Semantic Production as a Way of Forming Legal Concepts (Based on Russian Laws)

Abstract

The research featured legal terms formed according to the semantic method, e.g. semantic generalization, expansion / narrowing of meaning, institutional specification, metonymic or metaphorical transfer, their correlation, etc. The author highlighted the interconnection of semantic term formation and polysemy. The article contains a list of factors that cause ambiguity of legal concepts: (a) the author of the legislative text and the recipient; (b) the open nature of the legal terminological system, as well as the reproduction of multivalued lexemes in the laws and their reinterpretation; (c) the development of various variants of legislative definitions, etc. The paper focuses on semantic generalization and institutional specification of legal concepts. The author describes the interconnection of denotative-predicative and logical-conceptual approaches, as well as the mechanism of generalization and abstraction of lexical meaning. The differences of metonymic and metaphorical transfers were interpreted in terms of contrasting functions, models of education, and connotation potential. The research revealed a high productivity of metonymic transfer and legal concepts based on a combination of different types of semantic terminology. The study featured the texts of Russian Federal and regional laws. The author applied various approaches, e.g. discursive, contextual, intertextual, component, denotative-predicative, logical-conceptual, interpretative, comparative, etc. The results, conclusions, and illustrative material presented in this work may be of some interest to scientists and practitioners who study legal terminology, legal texts, and issues of the Russian language as a state language.