Linguistic and Conceptual Considerations on Some Tort Law Terms
Linguistic and Conceptual Considerations on Some Tort Law Terms

Summary/Abstract: Legal terminology consists of terms containing specialized information and knowledge in the legal domain. Ideally, terms are characterized by univocity, monoreferentiality and precision, reflecting the relation between name and notion, while acquiring conceptual independence regardless of any context. The terminology of tort law brings forward concepts imposed by terminological definitions. We have selected several tort law terms (23 simple/one-word units) for a linguistic (etymological, lexical, semantic) analysis, which obviously involves legal considerations. Morphologically, they are nouns, and terminologically, they represent terms which strictly belong to the legal sphere and the law of torts (such as tort or tortfeasor), terms which are used in various domains, the legal one included (e.g. conversion), or in different branches of law (e.g. claimant, defendant), or terms from the common language which migrated to the legal language (e.g. compensation). Semantic relations of synonymy, antonymy, polysemy and hyponymy are also analysed.

• Details
• Contents