The sociolinguistic construction of reality in the closing arguments of criminal trials

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.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Rosulek, Laura Felton

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bhatt, Rakesh M.
• Kibbee, Douglas A.
• Koven, Michele
• Terkourafi, Marina

• Linguistics
• Critical discourse analysis
• Systemic functional linguistics
• Linguistic anthropology
• Closing arguments

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2009 Laura Felton Rosulek

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/48993

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/48993