DETERMINOLOGIZATION OF LEGAL VOCABULARY IN NEWSPAPER DISCOURSE: A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

The present study investigates the phenomenon of determinologization of legal vocabulary in newspaper discourse from a linguistic perspective. Determinologization refers to the process through which specialized legal terms lose their strict terminological status and acquire broader, more general meanings in non-specialized contexts. In modern media communication, legal vocabulary frequently appears outside institutional legal discourse, particularly in newspapers, where it undergoes semantic, pragmatic, and stylistic transformations. This research applies a qualitative approach combining discourse analysis and semantic analysis to examine how legal terms function in English and Uzbek newspaper texts. The findings reveal that determinologization is driven by communicative needs, audience orientation, and ideological framing, resulting in semantic simplification, metaphorization, and evaluative reinterpretation. The study contributes to legal linguistics and media discourse analysis by highlighting the dynamic interaction between specialized and general language systems