Metaphor in the Language of Law: Conditions for Admissibility

Abstract

In this article, the language of law is considered as an independent regulating force and a representative of legal realities. The language of law lexical toolkit is formed not only of direct nominative signs, but also with the help of secondary semiosis signs, and in particular – metaphor. The aim of the work is to prove that metaphor in the language of law acts as a means of legal technique, that metaphoric mechanisms are not alien to the language of law, and the conceptual content of the signs of secondary semiosis in legal texts is self-sufficient for its adequate correlation with the object of legal regulation. The main methods of research are linguistic and legal method, logical and linguistic method, methods of historical analysis, functional and stylistic analysis, contextual analysis. The article analyzes the evolution and transformation of scientific views on the functional ambiguity of metaphor; in particular, it defines the main functions of metaphor in the legal document, systematizes the features
of metaphorical modeling in the language of law, formulates the conditions under which the introduction of metaphor in the language of law as a capacious language form synthesizing a vast range of information is valid and justified.