Functioning of the Phrase "Single Mother" as Part of Legal Language

The research attention in the article is focused on the functioning of the phrase "single mother" as part of legal language. Competent layout and reading of a legal text presupposes that the meaning of a separate fragment corresponds to the meaning of the text as a whole, and the absence of discrepancies in the special vocabulary used. Legal language is represented by certain components of statements that have varying degrees of complexity. To denominate a woman raising a child alone, the phrase "single mother" is traditionally used in domestic legislation. In the recent past, a single mother was recognized as a woman who was, first of all, unmarried and did not live or lead a joint household with the child’s father. Currently, the semantics of this phrase has changed. At the same time, in sectoral legislation, synonymous vocabulary is used in parallel, the terminological characteristics of the phrase "single mother" are not fully formed, and its use in the absence of a legal definition sometimes leads to semantic aberrations and the actualization of the issue of introducing rather debatable vocabulary into legislative and law enforcement practice.