The Specialized Vocabulary of Modern Patent Language: Semantic Associations in Patent Lexis

This paper presents an analysis of the language of patents, as a contribution to the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). While there work appears to fill a niche in the ESP field (and particularly in the English for Occupational Legal Purposes), the present study insists that statistical approach is necessary for compiling patent technical word list for ESP. Since research studies on word associations of patent lexis have been relatively scarce, this paper reports the technique to select appropriate words from high frequency words is required for modern patent language. The research content and statistical investigations building up a patent technical word list which helps learners of modern patent language expand the vocabulary size for a better understanding of patent writing.