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Abbreviations are often used in legal documents. The basic principle of abbreviation is that abbreviated words and abbreviations should not complicate the understanding of the text or lead to double interpretation.
The standardization of legal speech (primarily the language of typical legal documentation) is one of the most noticeable features of the legal substyle. The standardization process develops mainly in two directions:
a) wide use of ready-made, already established verbal formulas, stencils, stamps;
b) in the frequent repetition of the same words, forms, turns, constructions, in the desire for the same type of ways of expressing thoughts in the same situations, in refusing to use the expressive means of the language.
The process of phraseologising it is closely connected with the process of standardization of legal speech. This can be seen in the examples of the use of verbominants (verb-nominal phrases) in numerous legal documents, which in the business language become a universal means and are often used instead of verbal forms that are parallel to them. Verbonominants widely penetrate the legal language due to the fact that in some cases their use becomes mandatory (it is impossible to say otherwise): prevent rejection (допустить брак), perpetrate a crime (совершить преступление), take a position (занять должность), assign responsibility (возложить ответственность). Their meaning may not coincide with the meaning of the verbs parallel to them: the combination to hold a competition is not identical to the verb to compete. Verbonominants not only name the action, but also express certain additional semantic shades, precisely qualify certain phenomena. For example, to run over is a terminological phrase that is the official name for a certain type of traffic accident.
Other features of the legal sub-style are accuracy, imperativeness, objectivity and documentation, specificity, formality, conciseness.
The linguistic means of the legal substyle in legal documents form a relatively closed system, which is based on specific units of three levels: lexical, morphological and syntactic.
At the lexical level, in addition to commonly used and neutral words, we can distinguish:
a) words and phrases that are used mainly in legal documents and fixed in administrative and clerical speech (proper (надлежащий), due (должный), bondsman (поручитель), protect the rights and freedoms (охранять права и свободы), ensure equality (обеспечивать равноправие), etc.);
b) terms, professionalisms and phrases of a terminological nature, which is due to the content of legal documents (the most frequent terms are: collection (взимание), laws (законодательство), respondent (ответчик), ratify (ратифицировать), applicant (заявитель), etc.).
Many of the words with the coloring of the legal substyle form antonymic pairs: plaintiff - defendant (истец – ответчик), punished - justified (наказан – оправдан), aggravating - mitigating отягчающие - смягчающие (обстоятельства)) etc.
The phraseology of the official business style also differs in specific features. There are no figurative phrases here, no turns with a reduced stylistic coloring, etc. But stylistically neutral and interstyle phraseological units are very widely represented.
It should also be noted the purely nominal nature of the legal substyle of legal documents. The same noun in the texts of documents can be repeated even in adjacent sentences and not be replaced by a pronoun. In colloquial speech or in a literary text, such a use would be qualified as a tautology (unjustified repetition of the same word). In the legal context, such repetitions are functionally conditioned, since with their help it is possible to avoid misinterpretations.
In legal documents, nouns are widely used, which name people on the basis of some action or relationship: employer (наниматель), plaintiff (истец), defendant (ответчик), witness (свидетель), applicant (заявитель), etc. . The use of nouns denoting positions and titles in this style is possible only in the masculine form.
Numerals in legal documents are written in numbers, with the exception of such monetary documents as invoices, powers of attorney, receipts, etc.
A feature of the style of legal documents is also the predominant use of the infinitive in comparison with other verb forms.
The syntactic features of the style under consideration are closely related to lexical and morphological ones.
A feature of the syntax of this style is also the predominant use of indirect speech. Direct speech is resorted to only when legislative acts and other documents are quoted verbatim.
Some syntactic complexity of the legal sub-style is compensated by cliches and standardization. Sometimes mastering them requires special training. If it is necessary to use clichés on a mass scale, printed forms and certain forms are used, which are given in special reference books.
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