424208

A License to Dismiss: A Forensic Discourse Analysis of “Caught in Providence” Courtroom Hearings

Article

Last updated: 11 May 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

العلوم الإنسانية

Abstract

 Forensic linguistics is an emerging interdisciplinary approach to linguistics and law that is getting crucial nowadays. It is a sub-field of linguistics which is concerned with written and oral interaction in legal contexts. Forensic Linguistics encompasses various areas such as Auditory Phonetics, Acoustic Phonetics, Semantics, Discourse and Pragmatics as well as Language of the Law and Language of the courtroom which investigates the language used by judges, lawyers and witnesses. The present study applies a qualitative descriptive approach to analyze ten videos of “Caught in Providence" courtroom hearings as a unique model for forensic discourse. It applies Griffiths Question Map (GQM) developed by Griffiths and Milne (2006) and theory of politeness by Brown and Levinson (1987) to investigate the types of questions used in “Caught in Providence" courtroom hearings as well as the politeness techniques adopted to highlight their significance in presenting a distinctive forensic discourse. The findings of the present study show that “Caught in Providence" courtroom hearings have unique characteristics as forensic discourse. The study invites further investigation of courtroom hearings in non-western countries to highlight aspects of similarities and differences.

DOI

10.21608/jssa.2025.355793.1708

Keywords

courtroom hearings, digital legal discourse, forensic discourse analysis, Griffiths Question Map, politeness theory

Authors

First Name

Mai

Last Name

M. Mowafy

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

قسم اللغة الإنجليزية وآدابها والترجمة الفورية، كلية الدراسات الإنسانية، جامعة الأزهر بالقاهرة

Email

mowafy.mai@azhar.edu.eg

City

Cairo

Orcid

-

Volume

26

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

55273

Issue Date

2025-04-01

Receive Date

2025-03-05

Publish Date

2025-04-27

Page Start

1

Page End

28

Print ISSN

2356-8321

Online ISSN

2356-833X

Link

https://jssa.journals.ekb.eg/article_424208.html

Detail API

http://journals.ekb.eg?_action=service&article_code=424208

Order

8

Type

المقالة الأصلية

Type Code

653

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

مجلة البحث العلمي في الآداب

Publication Link

https://jssa.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

A License to Dismiss: A Forensic Discourse Analysis of “Caught in Providence” Courtroom Hearings

Details

Type

Article

Created At

11 May 2025