A pragmatic analysis of interrogation in selected forensic texts

Other Title(s)

دراسة تداولية لتعابير الاستجواب في نصوص جنائية مختارة

Dissertant

al-Amiri, Amir Saghir Ulwan

Thesis advisor

Ibrahim, Riyad Khalil

University

University of Baghdad

Faculty

College of Languages

Department

English Language Department

University Country

Iraq

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2014

English Abstract

This thesis studies interrogation in selected forensic texts from a pragmatic point of view.

It pragmatically tackles the selected data of the interrogation samples.

Police interrogation tends to have its own features and characteristics such as power, asymmetries, the use of deception kinds, lying and evasion strategies to hide and extract information by both police officers / detectives and suspects.

It has been observed that such aspects manifested throughout the observances or non-observances of Gricean maxims.

Therefore, the present study investigates these aspects in terms of the different linguistic indicators and/or clues which would reflect the different evasion strategies and deception kinds.Consequently, it attempts to achieve the following aims: analysing some selected forensic interrogation texts pragmatically, investigating the selected texts to specify their unique characteristics such as power, asymmetrical aspects, interruptions, deception, evasion, etc., examining the extent that a pragmatic theory may help in understanding the meaning of the texts in the selected examples.

To achieve the aims of this study, it is hypothesized that: (1)forensic interrogation texts demonstrate unique properties such as power, asymmetrical aspects, interruptions, deception, and evasion.

Therefore, these texts express more than the literal meaning and entail an implicit meaning; (2) police officers, basically, tend to use interruptions, power, questions to get and extract information from the suspects; (3) suspects tend to use of the different deception kinds, evasion strategies and interruptions for hiding or providing information that result in breaching conversational maxims.

To test the validity of these hypotheses, certain procedures have been followed: (1) presenting a general survey of the field of forensic linguistics and its scope, characteristics, types, etc.

in addition to the concept of interrogation and some related strategies and characteristics such as deception, evasion and interruption.

(2) proposing an appropriate eclectic model for the intended analysis.

(3) making an analysis of the data in terms of the adopted model and discussing the results, thereof.

(4) drawing conclusions in dependence upon the findings of the analysis and putting forward recommendations and suggestions for further research.

The study has concluded that during interrogations, police detectives use a wide spectrum of strategies to gain information that help their cases;they usevarious kinds of questions, interruptions, power, presenting evidence, maximizations, etc.However, the suspects use a plethora of deception kinds and evasion strategies, employing the different type of the non-observances of Grice maxims, such as topic shift, violation, flouting, opting outto keep their legal position safe and avoiding implicating themselves to the crimes.

Main Subjects

Languages & Comparative Literature

No. of Pages

270

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-741084