Event names in the terminological field of criminal procedure law

Terms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure of the United States of America with event semantics are analyzed for comparative purposes with regard to the semantic features, reference specifics, the tendencies of their syntactic use and the mechanisms of nomination which may be regarded as differential features of regulatory legal acts. The main distinctive feature of the analyzed cluster of lexical items which is a marker of the semantic continuum uniting nouns and verbs is eventivity. With regard to their reference, most event names which find their expression in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure of the United States of America possess the generic reference status. The analysis of event names from the standpoint of their syntagmatic properties allowed eliciting three groups of nominative items differently fulfilling their valences. The first group is represented by event names functioning independently; the second groups encompasses nominative units requiring the realization of verbal valences; the third group consists of nominative items liable to independent syntactic use as well as to encompassing specifying lexical items and thus forming complex nominative items. Specification of significative meaning by adding a lexical item, metonymy, metaphor and conversion are pointed out as the principal nomination mechanisms.