Advocacy

Dueling Discourses: The Construction of Reality in Closing Arguments

By Laura Felton Rosulek
Oxford University Press January 2015

Specifications

ISBN-13
9780199337613
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication
January 2015
Format
Hardback
Jurisdiction
U.S. ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

Dueling Discourses offers qualitative and quantitative analyses of the linguistic and discursive forms utilized by opposing lawyers in their closing arguments during criminal trials.

Laura Felton Rosulek analyzes how these arguments construct contrasting representations of the same realities, applying the insights and methodologies of critical discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics to a corpus of arguments from seventeen trials.

Her analysis suggests that silencing (omitting relevant information), de-emphasizing (giving information comparatively less attention and focus), and emphasizing (giving information comparatively more attention and focus) are the key communicative devices that lawyers rely on to create their summations. Through these processes, lawyers' lexical, syntactic, thematic, and discursive patterns, both within individual narratives and across whole arguments, function together to create versions of reality that reflect each individual lawyer's goals and biases.

The first detailed analysis of closing arguments, this book will significantly improve our understanding of courtroom discourse. Furthermore, as previous research on all genres of discourse has examined exclusion/inclusion and de-emphasis/emphasis as separate issues rather than as steps on a continuum, this book will advance the field of discourse analysis by establishing the ubiquity of these phenomena.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. The Theoretical Framework
Chapter 3. The Defendants
Chapter 4. The Victims
Chapter 5. The Jurors
Chapter 6. The Lawyers
Chapter 7. The Big Picture
Bibliography
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