LINGUISTIC AND NORMATIVE FEATURES OF THE TEXT OF NORMATIVE LEGAL DOCUMENTS: OFFICIAL-ADMINISTRATIVE STYLE, TERMINOLOGY, AND PRINCIPLES OF CLARITY

• Otabek Buronov

  Master’s Student, Group OʻTA 24/1 Chirchiq State Pedagogical University

  Author

• Qodirjon Abdurasulovich Mo‘ydinov

  Associate Professor, Chirchiq State Pedagogical University

  Author

This article examines the linguistic and normative features of normative legal documents as a specialized type of institutional text that must simultaneously be legally valid, administratively executable, and linguistically unambiguous. The study focuses on how the official-administrative style organizes meaning through stable formulaic constructions, standardized syntactic patterns, and a restricted set of pragmatic intentions such as prescribing, prohibiting, authorizing, and defining. Special attention is paid to the terminological system of normative documents, where lexical precision, conceptual consistency, and controlled synonymy function as key instruments for preventing interpretive variability. The paper argues that clarity in normative texts is not a purely stylistic preference but a normative principle directly linked to legal certainty, equality of application, and enforceability. Using a philological approach to institutional discourse, the article analyzes typical sources of opacity in normative drafting, including excessive nominalization, overloaded sentences, vague reference, inconsistent definitions, and uncontrolled borrowing. The research synthesizes criteria for linguistic quality assurance in normative drafting: definitional discipline terminological uniformity, coherent reference chains, explicit scope markers, and balanced use of modality. The article also discusses the interaction between Uzbek language norms and contemporary legal drafting practices, highlighting challenges of translating legal concepts, aligning terminology across sectors, and maintaining readability for mixed audiences ranging from legal professionals to citizens. The findings propose an integrated model for evaluating normative legal texts that combines stylistic, lexical-semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic indicators, offering recommendations for improving drafting culture and enhancing the communicative effectiveness of legal regulation in multilingual and rapidly modernizing institutional contexts.

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