Compressive word formation in English legal discourse: Structural and semantic characteristics of linguistic units

The aim of the study is to identify the structural and semantic features of linguistic units serving as means of compressive word formation in English legal discourse. The article explores the notion of compression, focusing on the most common means of compression in the form of English compound words and abbreviations at the derivational level. The scientific novelty lies in the comprehensive analysis of means of compressive word formation in English legal discourse, which allowed for the identification and description of productive derivational patterns based on extensive linguistic material, defining the uniqueness of their structure and semantics. The analysis reveals that compound words are the most common means of compression, enabling linguistic economy. Predominant are compound words based on the ‘N + N’ asyntactic model; phrasal compounds with nominal and verbal stem components; derivative compounds created following the agentive model ‘N + V + -er’. Among abbreviations with highly compressive forms of expression, initialisms dominate, based on two-word and three-word nominal models of word formation, as well as syllabic abbreviations retaining the initial part of the original word and hybrid abbreviations formed by contraction.