Publication Details
Abstract
This study investigates the intersection of ontological and sociolinguistic approaches in the modeling of legal terminology, with a specific focus on English and Uzbek. Legal language, shaped by unique national legal systems, often resists direct translation due to structural, cultural, and conceptual mismatches. By integrating ontological modeling – which clarifies hierarchical and relational term structures – with sociolinguistic analysis that accounts for cultural and pragmatic contexts, this research offers a novel framework for analyzing and comparing legal lexicons across languages. Drawing from bilingual corpora, legal codes, and expert translations, the study identifies key patterns of divergence and convergence in term usage, classification, and functional load. The findings reveal that many legal terms lack one-to-one equivalence, and that context-dependent meanings require nuanced interpretation grounded in both legal theory and linguistic practice. The proposed methodology enhances semantic interoperability and supports the creation of more accurate, culturally aware legal dictionaries and translation tools. This paper contributes to both legal linguistics and comparative law by highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary methods in cross-linguistic terminology studies. Ultimately, it advocates for a more systematic and culturally sensitive approach to the development of bilingual legal resources, especially in underrepresented language pairs such as English and Uzbek.