Linguistic complexity of the German legal text

INTRODUCTION. The linguistic complexity of the German legal text is considered. The relevance is due to the need for an in-depth study of the linguistic features of the German legal text, which is traditionally considered one of the most difficult to understand. This work aims to identify, systematize and describe the linguistic complexity of the German legal text, which determines the analysis of lexical complexity associated with the complexity of the form and content of the word, and the analysis of grammatical complexity reflected in the syntactic features of the German legal language. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The text of the Law on Citizenship (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz (StAG)) is chosen as the empirical basis of the study, which was subjected to syntactic analysis, as well as a word-formation and semantic analysis of the terminological apparatus of the selected text. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The main sources of lexical complexity of the legal text are identified, which include multicomponent nouns, nominalized constructions and highly specialized terminology. The complexity of the text is described due to the syntactic features of the German language: the complex syntactic structure of sentences and the use of passive constructions. It is established that complex sentences of a legal text are common and contain several subordinate clauses that are subordinately dependent on each other, which makes it difficult for the reader to perceive the text, since the reader must keep in mind a long chain of conditions until the final semantic verb appears in the sentence. Passive constructions lack a subject of action, which gives the text an impersonality and qualitatively reduces its perception due to the fact that the reader is forced to restore the hidden agent. CONCLUSION. . The analysis of the Law on Citizenship shows that the German legal text is characterized by a high degree of linguistic complexity, due to both the complexity of the German language itself and the functional requirements imposed on the official business style of the legal document. The practical value of the work lies in the possibility of applying the results obtained in the analysis of legal texts, as well as in lectures and practical classes when teaching German law.