A register approach to specialized word list creation

Abstract Specialized word lists (SWLs) can help language learners acquire domain-specific vocabulary; however, there are few such lists for legal domains despite the growing demand for resources in this area. Additionally, in list design and construction, register is rarely considered a meaningful component of design or validation despite the fact that register is one of the most meaningful predictors of linguistic variation, including lexical variation. The present study begins to fill these gaps by expanding on the Contracts Word List ( Hanks, Hashimoto, & Egbert 2024 ) in creating subregister specific lists for 54 types of contracts (CWL+). SWLs within the Contracts Word List were generated relying heavily on text-dispersion keyness analysis ( Egbert & Biber 2019 ), and their usefulness was validated through percent coverage statistics and register analysis. This study illustrates the usefulness of keyness analysis in word list creation and the constructive role that register can play in the design and evaluation of SWLs.