Keywords
Abstract
This article investigates the stylistic functions of legal vocabulary in English detective narratives. Detective fiction represents a literary domain in which institutional legal language intersects with artistic discourse, forming a distinctive stylistic system. Legal vocabulary in such narratives is not limited to technical description of crimes and judicial procedures but performs multiple expressive, structural, and pragmatic functions. The study analyzes how legal lexical units contribute to realism, characterization, narrative tension, ideological meaning, and reader perception. Drawing on examples from classical and modern English detective fiction, including works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Raymond Chandler, and contemporary crime writers, the research demonstrates that legal vocabulary operates as an essential stylistic resource that shapes genre identity and narrative coherence.
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