PLAIN ENGLISH AND FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of studies focusing on legal writing in the English language as such and from the perspective of contemporary functional stylistics. It delves into the intrinsic characteristics of legal English. In the realm of foreign scholarship, one of the leading directions in the study of legal texts is “democratic”. This paradigm is closely associated with initiatives aimed at enhancing the comprehensibility of legal texts for non-professionals. Contemporary studies in this field build upon prior developments and seek to assess the effectiveness of plain English in official documents. Despite all the advantages of this approach, studies show that desired satisfactory simplification does not occur. From the standpoint of functional stylistics, each variety of a particular functional style conveys a certain type of content. Eliminating the type of content conveyed by the text belonging to a certain variety may destroy the conceptual integrity of a text or shift it into the category of the style of everyday communication, which is unacceptable for the official functional style, in which precision is essential.