Structural and typological characteristics of modern English legal dictionaries

The paper in hand focuses on the study of lexicographic principles underlying the contents and structure of modern English legal dictionaries. A legal dictionary is a reference book of concepts and terms functioning in the sphere of law. Dictionaries of legal terms are classified according to the number of languages employed, their purpose, target group, function, scope of interest, etc. Legal dictionaries corpora may have alphabetical or ideographic organization. The microstructure of legal dictionaries has many information fields offering their users term definitions, illustrative examples, notes on grammar, pronunciation, etymology, stylistic reference of legal terms, etc. Registration parameters including registration dates and reference numbers, authorship data, etc. are also traditional components of dictionary entries. Modern lexicography is unimaginable without computer-based dictionaries. Electronic dictionaries of legal terms are well represented on the market of computer lexicography and actively function in the web-space.