LA TAXONOMIE DE LA TERMINOLOGIE DU DROIT FRANÇAIS
The taxonomy of the French legal terminology from a juridical-linguistic perspective

Summary/Abstract: To fall into the category of specialized language, the legal metalanguage needs to meet certain distinctive linguistic criteria. According to Saussure’s dichotomy language/speech, which postulates that any metalanguage develops within a given language, the French legal language develops, according to the same linguistic norms of the French language. Within the legal language, we differentiate several intra-linguistic level lexical layers. Some linguists and researchers mention the fact that the legal terminology is built out of three lexical layers. The legal terms are related to the three layers, according to the degree of information they carry in the legal text: the 1st terminological layer will be considered the lexical layer with a complete degree of specificity (full specificity); the 2nd layer will show an average degree of specificity (mean specificity) and thee 3rd layer will be considered as the lexical layer with zero specificity.

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