Formation of English-Language Legal Terms in the Cultural and Historical Context

   The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the formation of legal terms in the English language. The author identifies the main categories of term formation, considers the formal-linguistic, structural-semantic characteristics of term combinations and their components, and establishes the relationship between the English legal term system and socio-cultural factors that contribute to the evolution of the language tools of lawyers in different historical periods.
   The relevance of the research topic is determined by the need to study the historical and cultural features of the English legal language, which are necessary for understanding the worldview of the linguistic and legal community.
   The paper presents materials on the study of linguistic means of expressing the main legal terms in the English language of the Ancient, Middle and Early English periods. Along with a detailed description of the word-forming features and functioning of terms in the period from the VII-XVII centuries, the processes leading to changes in the formal and substantive aspects of the English legal term system are investigated. A comprehensive approach to the study of vocabulary, taking into account the historical conditionality of the changes that legal terms were subjected to over ten centuries, allowed us to observe changes in the composition of the linguistic means of the most significant concepts of English law in the initial periods of its history, as well as to determine the factors that caused these changes. The methodological basis of this study is the method of correlation of linguistic and social phenomena, the method of analysis of dictionary definitions, and the method of linguistic modeling. The systematized material proposed by the author is effective for use in the teaching process, which determines the practical significance of the research.

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