Features of Headings of Legislative Texts (Case Study of the Federal Law "About Bases of Protection of Public Health in the Russian Federation")

Abstract

The paper attempts to describe the features of the headings of legislative texts as in the case of the Federal Law " About bases of protection of public health in the Russian Federation". It has been concluded that in the law there function headings of different types: headings that do not belong exclusively to the field of legal texts and can be used in texts of other types, and legal headings proper, which have specific features that are characteristic only of legal discourse. Such titles are a fairly stable type of titles within the discourse under consideration and are relatively independent structural units of the law. In this article, legislative headings proper are characterized as microtexts with legal semantics, which are relatively independent elements of legislative discourse, serving as a “code” of specific legal information and, as a result, expressing certain meanings of deontic modality (modality of duty). Based on the analysis of titles presented in this paper, it has been concluded that, despite the traditional perception of titles as non-predicative units, and therefore devoid of modal meanings, in a number of legislative titles this category can be expressed implicitly, and in some titles even partially explicated.  In the text of the federal law under consideration, several separate groups of legislative titles proper are distinguished, which include: a) titles with a zero modality indicator; b) modal headings with the semantics of procedurality expressed by a verbal noun; c) proper nominative headings, the modality of which is established in relation to headings of a larger level.