Coordinative Idioms in English Legal Terminology

Abstract

The article deals with coordinative idioms in English legal terminology.
The authors analyze the terms that reflect the legal systems of some Englishspeaking countries. They point out that idioms represent national and cultural identities of countries. The paper contains a classification of idioms in question according to their grammar characteristics. Most coordinative idioms are verbal idioms, substantive idioms, adjectival idioms, rarely — adverbial idioms.
The article contains examples of coordinative idioms that represent different branches of law: constitutional law, criminal law, contract law, family law, etc. It studies such significant characteristics of idioms as sustainability and repeatability. Special attention is paid to doublets. The authors examine the issue of pleonasm and offer means of translating pleonastic phrases which are often used in legal documents in English-speaking countries. The paper reviews classifications of coordinative idioms suggested by different linguistic schools. In the authors’ opinion coordinative idioms should be included under the heading of “cliché”.