On the Peculiarities of Interpretation of the Concept of Offensiveness in Contempt of Court Cases

The article covers a сomparative study of the concept of offensiveness in cases of administrative offenses and criminal cases of contempt of court. Both general and distinctive features are revealed. The concept of offensiveness is considered from linguistic and legal points of view. Particular attention is paid to two court cases that demonstrate a different approach to the qualification of the concept of offensiveness. Words and expressions are considered from the point of view of the denotative and connotative meanings. The lexical units under examination are also considered from the pragmatic point of view. The focus is made on metaphor as a stylistic means and zoomorphic metaphor as a variation. Offensiveness is stated as being determined not only by the lexical and semantic content of a word, but also by the context, which refers to the situation and the place of communication. It is concluded that in cases of contempt of court, the principle of increased intolerance is applied to words and expressions that negatively characterize the judicial authority, undermine judicial order and discredit parties to a trial. The semantic principles defining the concept of insulting a judge are revealed. The factors preventing the correct qualification of offensiveness in court are determined, one of which is a formal and logical approach to the consideration of the word. All of this leads to the conclusion that an important component of the word, stylistic differentiation, remains outside the scope of forensic linguistic examination.