LEXICAL FEATURES OF THE DISCOURSE, THE SUBJECTS OF WHICH ARE DISTRICT POLICE OFFICERS

Abstract

The discourse of police district commissioners has a borderline status: it functions at the intersection of the institutional “discourse of the law” and the non-institutional “discourse of ordinary citizens.” The researcher has conducted a comprehensive analysis of the lexical system: lexical units have been classified into thematic groups (subjects, causality, processes, characteristics, elements of the institution, and names of documents). Particular attention is paid to the analysis of semantic transformations of commonly used vocabulary (polysemy), which acquires specific meanings within the framework of institutional constraints (using the example of the lexemes “material”, “case”, “article”, “call”). The article examines in detail the functioning of synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and paronyms depending on the form (oral/written) and the addressee of the text (intra-departmental communication or interaction with citizens).