Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Proper Names in the Legal Terminology of the English Language

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of coining terms and nomenclature signs with proper names illustrated by the example of the English language legal terminology. The article begins with the discussion of the problems of intersection of two linguistic areas (those of terminology and onomastics) and differentiation between terms and nomenclature signs. It is observed that linguistic units with proper names possess a cultural specificity in the legal English as compared to the Russian terminological system of law. Linguistic and extra-linguistic factors influencing language units’ formation with the help of proper names in legal English, their structural and semantic specificity are revealed. The latter is considered from the point of view of the two-level semantics of language signs. The authors come to the following conclusions: (1) structural variability of the units under consideration especially strongly manifest in formation of legal nomenclature; (2) systemic linguistic oppositions of terms and nomenclature signs with proper names determine the semantics of these units; (3) the basis of the meaning of a term and a nomenclature sign is a notion, its essential components being included into the definitions; (4) differential semes of the meanings are assigned to the proper name elements of terms; (5) all semes of nomenclature signs with proper names constitute an inseparable whole and are not assigned to any specific elements of these units; (6) the meanings of nomenclature signs with proper names specify those of the terms in the hierarchical structure of the terminological system and in particular legal situations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Balkin, Jack M. 2020. The Promise of Legal Semiotics. Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 278. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2d2b/f067593558cc5b89b2291d5738d48666ba20.pdf. Accessed 2 Jan 2020.

  2. Barthes, Roland. 1986. Elements of Semiology. Translated from French by Annette Lavers and Colin Smith. Eleventh printing. New York: HILL and WANG (originally published in 1964).

  3. Bierwisch, Manfred. 1983. Formal and Lexical Semantics. In Proceedings of the XIII International Congress of Linguistics, August 29–September 4, 1982, ed. ShirÔ Hattori, Kazuko Inoue and others, 122–136. Tokyo: The Proceedings Publishing Committee under the auspices of the CIPL [The Hague].

  4. Broekman, Jan M. 2011. Faces Face to Face. In The Semiotics of Law in Legal Education, ed. Jan M. Broekman and Francis J. Mootz III, 21–55. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1341-3_2.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Broekman, Jan M. 2010. Firstness and Phenomenology—Peirce and Husserl on Attitude Change. In Prospects of Legal Semiotics, ed. Anne Wagner and Jan M. Broekman, 37–77. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9343-1_2.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Bullon, Stephen. 1990. The Treatment of Connotation in Learner’s Dictionaries. In BudaLEX’88 Proceedings. Papers from the 3rd International E.URALEX Congress. Budapest, 4–9 September 1988, ed. T. Magay and J. Zigäny, 27–33. Budapest: Akademiai Kiadό.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Danilenko, Valeria P. 1964. Razvitie grammatiki i leksiki sovremennogo russkogo yazyka [Development of Grammar and Vocabulary of the Modern Russian language]. Moscow: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Duhaime’s Law Dictionary. http://www.duhaime.org. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.

  9. Ellsworth, Jeffrey A. 2011. Semiotics in Legal Theory Design. In The Semiotics of Law in Legal Education, ed. Jan M. Broekman and Francis J. Mootz III, 129–200. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1341-3_8.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Frege, Gottlob. 1948. Sense and Reference. The Philosophical Review 57(3): 209–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Gardiner, Alan. 1957. The Theory of Proper Names: A Controversial Essay. 2nd ed. 2nd impression. London: Oxford University Press (originally published in 1940).

  12. Garrett, Meghann L. 2011. Trademarks as a System of Signs: A Semiotician’s Look at Trademark Law. In The Semiotics of Law in Legal Education, ed. Jan M. Broekman and Francis J. Mootz III, 221–236. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1341-3_12.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Hjelmslev, Louis. 1969. Prolegomena to a Theory of Language. London: University of Wisconsin Press. (Translation by Francis J. Whitfield from the Danish original: (1943) Omkring sprogteoriens grundlæggelse, Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard).

  14. International Council of Onomastic Sciences. List of Key Onomastic Terms. https://icosweb.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ICOS-Terms-en.pdf. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.

  15. Justia. US Supreme Court. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/384/436. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.

  16. Kalmazova, Nadezda A. 2013. Spetsifika otonimicheskikh terminov v angliiskom yazyke [Specifics of Terms with Proper Names in English]. Saratov: ITs “Nauka”.

  17. Kazankova, Y.M. 2014. Lingvokognitivnoe opisanie matematicheskogo teksta [Linguistic and Cognitive Description of Mathematical Text]. Vestnik Permskogo natsional’nogo issledovatel’skogo politekhnicheskogo universiteta. Problemy yazykoznaniya i pedagogiki [Bulletin of the Perm National Research university. Problems of Language and Pedagogics] 6: 139–143.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Khizhnyak, Sergey P. 2018. Affixed terms in cognitive categorization of the legal picture of the world and in LSP teaching. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric. https://doi.org/10.2478/slgr-2018-0006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Khizhnyak, S.P. 2014. Mezhkul’turnaya professional’naya kommunikaciya yuristov: teoreticheskie osnovy [Intercultural Professional Communication of Lawyers: Theoretical Basis]. Saratov: Izd-vo FGBOU VPO «Saratovskaya gosudarstvennaya yuridicheskaya akademiya».

    Google Scholar 

  20. Langendonck, Willy van. 2007. Theory and Typology of Proper Names. Mouton: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Legal Citations—How to Find Court Decisions and Other Legal Material. http://jailhouselaw.org/legal-citations-how-to-find-court-decisions-and-other-legal-material. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.

  22. Legal Dictionary. http://dictionary.law.com. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.

  23. Lončar, Maja, and AnićA Ostroški. 2014. Eponymous Medical Terms as a Source of Terminological Variation. In Languages for Special Purposes in a Multilingual, Transcultural World, Proceedings of the 19th European Symposium on Languages for Special Purposes, 8–10 July 2013, Vienna, Austria, ed. G. Budin and V. Lušicky, 36–44. Vienna: University of Vienna.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Maikova, T.A. 2017. Eponimy v sostave angloyazychnoi terminologicheskii leksiki predmetnoi oblasti «Sotsiologiya». [Eponyms in the System of the English Terminological Lexis of Sociology]. Vestnik Rossiiskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Teoriya yazyka. Semiotika. Semantika. [Bulletin of the RUDN University. Series: Language theory. Semiotics, Semantics] 8(2): 326–334.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Mill, John S. 1882. A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation, 8th ed. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Nakhimova, Elena A. 2007. Pretsedentnye imena v massovoi kommunikatsii [Precedent Names in Mass Communication]. Ekaterinburg: Ural’skii gos. ped. un-t.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Paradis, Carita. 2012. Lexical Semantics. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ed. C.A. Chapelle, 3356–3357. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Potebnya, Alexander A. 1958. Iz zapisok po russkoj grammatike [Notes on Russian Grammar]. Moscow: Uchpedgiz.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Quinion, Michael. World Wide Words. Investigating the English Language across the Globe. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-joh2.htm. Accessed 2 Sept 2019.

  30. Reformatskiy, Alexander A. 1961. Chto takoe termin i terminologiya? [What are terms and terminology?]. In Voprosy terminologii. Materialy Vsesoyuznogo terminologicheskogo soveshchaniya [Problems of Terminology. Materials of the All-Russia Terminological Congress], ed. Yu.D. Desheriev, 46–54. Moscow: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Reformatskiy, Alexander A. 1986. Mysli o terminologii [Thoughts About Terminology]. In Sovremennye problemy russkoi terminologii [Modern Problems of Russian Terminology], ed. V.P. Danilenko, 163–198. Moscow: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Salter, Michael. 2010. Resources for a Dialectical Legal Semiotics. In Prospects of Legal Semiotics, ed. Anne Wagner and Jan M. Broekman, 107–141. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9343-1.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  33. Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1959. Course in General Linguistics. (Trans. Wade Baskin; Ed. by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye in collaboration with Albert Reidlinger). New York: Philosophical Library.

  34. Sharapova, Tatiana N. 2013. Osobennosti eponimnykh terminov v nemetskoi terminologii bioniki [Specific Features of Eponymous Terms in the German Terminology of Botany]. Lingua mobilis 1(40): 159–165.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Superanskaya, Alexandra V., Natalia V. Podol’skaya, and Natalia V. Vasil’eva. 2012. Obshchaya terminologiya: Voprosy teorii [General Terminology: Problems of Theory]. Moscow: Librokom.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Superanskaya, Alexandra V. 1973. Obshchaya teoriya imeni sobstvennogo [General Theory of Proper Names]. Moscow: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Taylor, Robert B. 2017. The Amazing Language of Medicine. Understanding Medical Terms and Their Backstories. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50328-8.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  38. Todea, Luminița. 2013. Eponyms and the Language of Technology. https://studylib.net/doc/18806666/eponyms-and-the-language-of-technology. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.

  39. United States of America, Appellee, v. Hyman Harvey KLEIN, Maurice Haas, and Morris O. Alprin, Defendants-Appellants. https://ru.scribd.com/document/320172947/United-States-v-HymanHarvey-Klein-Maurice-Haas-and-Morris-O-Alprin-247-F-2d-908-2d-Cir-1957. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.

  40. USLegal. https://definitions.uslegal.com/w/welsh-mortgage 18. Accessed 2 Sep 2019.

  41. Vereshchagin, Evgeny M., and Vitaly G. Kostomarov. 1983. Yazyk i kul’tura: Lingvostranovedenie v prepodavanii russkogo yazyka kak inostrannogo [Language and Culture: Linguistics and Regional Geography]. Moscow: Izd-vo «Vysshaya shkola».

    Google Scholar 

  42. Vereshchagin, Evgeny M., and Vitaly G. Kostomarov. 1999. V poiskakh novykh putei razvitiya lingvostranovedeniya: kontseptsiya rechepovedencheskikh taktik [Looking for New Ways of the of the Linguistic Studies: The Concept of Legal Behavior Tactics]. Moscow: Izd-vo gos. in-ta rus. yaz. im. A. S. Pushkina.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Woywodt, Alexander, Stephen S. Lefrak, and Eric L. Matteson. 2010. Tainted eponyms in medicine: the “Clara” cell joins the list. European Respiratory Journal https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.00046110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of the English Language, Saratov State Law Academy, Saratov, Russia

    Sergey P. Khizhnyak & Alexander A. Zaraiskiy

Authors
  1. Sergey P. Khizhnyak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alexander A. Zaraiskiy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sergey P. Khizhnyak.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Khizhnyak, S.P., Zaraiskiy, A.A. Proper Names in the Legal Terminology of the English Language. Int J Semiot Law 33, 543–558 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-020-09683-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-020-09683-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation