SOCIOLINGUISTIC ADAPTATION OF LEGAL TERMS IN DIGITAL LEGAL COMMUNICATION
Keywords:
legal discourse, digital legal communication, sociolinguistics, legal terminology, legal translation, conceptual equivalence, public service, personal data, plain legal language, communicative precisionAbstract
The article examines the sociolinguistic adaptation of legal terms in digital public administration on the basis of Uzbek, Russian, and English materials. A legal term is interpreted not merely as the name of a concept, but as a complex linguistic unit combining normative meaning, institutional authority, communicative purpose, and the addressee’s legal experience. Comparative semantic, contextual, functional pragmatic, and discourse analyses reveal complete equivalence, functional equivalence, context-dependent variation, and semantic shifts caused by literal translation. The conceptual boundaries among the three languages are discussed through such units as public service, application, legal entity, administrative act, liability, consent, and personal data. It is therefore argued that the standardization of legal terms should prioritize the legal function of a term, its genre, its intended audience, and the legal consequences it produces rather than its isolated dictionary equivalent. The findings are relevant to legal drafting, multilingual public service platforms, legal translation, and the development of accessible legal communication.
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