Communication aspects of the demand in the legal discourse

The task is to determine the semantic and communicative features of the lexeme demand used in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The establishment of discursively determined characteristics of the term is carried out based on comparison with the typical characteristics that a commonly used lexeme trebovanije (demand) has in linguistic descriptions. It was found that legal definitions for the most part contain the usual practicing of the lexeme trebovanije, denoting normative attitudes in various spheres of social activity. References to demands can be differentiated depending on the temporal marking associated with the type of deviation (offense). Two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation describe situations when demands are made by the subjects of the offense. At the same time, the disposition of the article 163 – “Extortion” is specific and unique, since it presents the only case in the Criminal Code when a subject of an offense presents his personal claim. The specifics of the demand included in the disposition of that article are considered through the prism of metalanguage comments by lawyers. Another stage of the analysis was the concretization for universal semantic features of speech demands. The conclusion is made about the two-part nature of the communicative structure of the extortionate demand, since in a criminal situation, the threat accompanying this message becomes the decisive factor determining the interpretation of the sentence expressing the desire of the extortionist.

1. Bezyaeva, M.G. (2002), Semantika kommunikativnogo urovnya zvuchashchego yazyka: voleiz”yavlenie i vyrazhenie zhelaniya govoryashchego v russkom dialoge [Semantics of the communicative level of a sounding language. The expression of the speaker’s will and desire in a Russian dialogue], Izdatel’stvo MGU, Moscow, Russia.