Metaphorical Terms as Part of English Legal Terminology

Abstract

The present research features the role of metaphorical term formation in the Anglo-American legal term system on the basis of a multi-aspect analysis of a lexicographic source. A thorough examination showed that metaphorization is a full-featured but not productive mechanism of terminology production in the sphere of jurisprudence. Metaphorical terms that function in major, specialized, and complex branches of law represent less than 1% of all terminological units recorded in the ABBYY Press legal dictionary. The paper focuses on mono-lexemic and poly-lexemic legal terms formed by metaphorization. Two- and three-component metaphorical terms were found most frequent. This fact can be explained both by the binary essence of the metaphorical process itself and by a high degree of specification of the legal concept. The position of the metaphorical component was taken into account when the terminological combinations were systematized. The paper contains some examples of various types of metaphoric shift in term formation: reframing according to (1) functional analogy, (2) identity of the produced impression, (3) size correspondence, (4) similarity of origin, (5) the presence of related properties, and (6) the same extension in space. The author singled out anthropomorphic, socio-morphic, artifactual, and nature-morphic metaphorical models of legal term formation. The predominant distribution of anthropomorphic legal metaphors reached almost 50% of the whole selection of examples. The paper describes and illustrates conceptual source spheres of all four categories of terminological metaphors in the legal field. As for some vague cases, the author specified the significative zone of the metaphor according to its figurative-semantic focus. In addition, the study differentiated universal and nationally-marked legal metaphorical terms. Particular attention in this classification was given to metaphorical terms that bear precedent phenomena which are part of the cognitive base of the English-speaking socio-cultural community and serve as a key to understanding its legal norms.