English Law Terms: Optimizing Education Process

Abstract

The article focuses on the terminology of English law as a system. It deals with the main specific characteristics of the English legal terminology and studies the systemic nature of the terminology of Criminal Law. Nowadays, an increasing role of the study of professional language (Language for Specific Purposes) is obvious since it is a means of dissemination and exchange of professional information and a means of communication in the professional discourse. It is a system of terms that constitutes the core of the Language for Specific Purposes. The study of terminology is of paramount importance for the legal sphere of human activity where the accuracy of interpretation plays a very substantial part. Legal terms have a number of specific characteristics, such as: abstract nature of legal notions; introduction of new terms by regulatory organizations; an important role of judicial interpretation in constituting shades of meaning of a legal terminological unit; and the fact that a legal term may belong to a particular area of Law, which makes it possible to refer it to the category of general legal, branch-wise, or inter-branch vocabulary. Every term has its particular place among other elements of a system and is related to them in a particular way. A terminological system should be considered as a whole, and there are particular hierarchical relations between its elements. Within a terminological system, it is possible to seta hierarchy of generic and specific terms that can form the so-called semantic field. One of the features demonstrating the systemic links within a terminology is the existence of some typical structural models, according to which terms are coined. An important criterion is the predominance ofterminological word-combinations of a certain type. For example, in the terminology of Criminal Law the models Noun + Preposition + Noun and Adjective + Noun are the most common structural models. Another important criterion of a systemic nature of terminology is the existence of antonymous relations between terminological units. Undoubtedly, systemic approach to terminological studies allows optimizing the learning process.