The sociolinguistic construction of reality in the closing arguments of criminal trials
Rosulek, Laura Felton
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/48993
Description
Title
The sociolinguistic construction of reality in the closing arguments of criminal trials
Author(s)
Rosulek, Laura Felton
Issue Date
2009
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Bhatt, Rakesh M.
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Bhatt, Rakesh M.
Committee Member(s)
Kibbee, Douglas A.
Koven, Michele
Terkourafi, Marina
Department of Study
Linguistics
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Level
Dissertation
Ph.D.
Keyword(s)
Linguistics
Critical discourse analysis
Systemic functional linguistics
Linguistic anthropology
Closing arguments
Language
en
Abstract
This dissertation is a critical analysis of the sociolinguistic choices lawyers make
in the closing arguments of criminal trials to construct opposing representations of the
same people and events. I analyzed the closing arguments of seventeen felony trials
using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and the insights of Critical
Discourse Analysis, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Linguistic Anthropology.
Based on the results of four analyses, I argue that opposing lawyers use their linguistic
and discursive choices contrastively to silence, background, and
foreground different information.
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