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Article published In: Morality and language aggression
Edited by Dániel Z. Kádár and Vahid Parvaresh
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 7:1] 2019
► pp. 105–132

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Explicit and implicit discursive strategies and moral order in a trial process

 | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Published online: 12 June 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00021.mou
Abstract
The present paper examines data which has been drawn from the official proceedings of a murder trial in a Greek court, concerning the killing of an adolescent by a police officer (see also Georgalidou, Marianthi. 2012. “Ερωτήσεις και Απαντήσεις στο Δημοσιογραφικό και Δικανικό Λόγο: Μια Προκαταρκτική Μελέτη.” (‘Questions and Answers in Journalistic and Legal Discourse: A Preliminary Study’). In Selected Papers of the 10th International Conference of Greek Linguistics, edited by Zoe Gavriilidou, Angeliki Efthymiou, Evangelia Thomadaki and Penelope Kambakis-Vougiouklis, 733–741. Komotini: Dimocritus University of Thrace.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2016. “Question-Answer Sequences in Institutional Discourse: Constructing the Defendant”. In Selected Papers of the 21st International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (ISTAL 21), vol. 211, edited by Marina Mattheoudakis and Katerina Nicolaidis, 105–126. Thessaloniki: School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Available: [URL]), and addresses the issues of aggressive discursive strategies and the moral order in the trial process. It analyses the explicit and implicit strategies involved in morally discrediting the opponent, a rather frequent defence strategy (Atkinson, Maxwell J., and Paul Drew. 1979. Order in Court. London: Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Coulthard, Malcom, and Alison Johnson. 2007. An Introduction to Forensic. Linguistics: Language in Evidence. London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Levinson, Steven. 1979. “Activity Types and Language.” Linguistics 17(5/6):356–399.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The paper examines agency deflection towards the victim (. 2016. “Question-Answer Sequences in Institutional Discourse: Constructing the Defendant”. In Selected Papers of the 21st International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (ISTAL 21), vol. 211, edited by Marina Mattheoudakis and Katerina Nicolaidis, 105–126. Thessaloniki: School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Available: [URL]), attribution of a socio-spatial identity to the victim and witnesses in an essentialist and reductionist way, and other linguistic and discursive means, the majority of which mobilize moral panic and have implications for the moral order in court. I argue that these aggressive discursive means primarily contribute to the construction of a normative moral order by both adversarial parties.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The focus on discursive strategies of moral evaluation and discredit
  • 2.Main concepts
    • 2.1Morality in discourse and the moral order
    • 2.2Moral panic
    • 2.3Implicitness /explicitness
    • 2.4Agency, agentive positionings
  • 3.Murder case and court setting
  • 4.Trial proceedings: A complex discursive genre
    • 4.1A note on data
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Rejecting agency – deflecting responsibility
    • 5.2De-moralizing responsibility
    • 5.3Metacomments on language aggression and language reticence
    • 5.4Socio-spatial construction of moral representation of the victim’s identity
    • 5.5Reported speech: Rumours and hearsay
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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Cited by one other publication

Kádár, Dániel Z., Vahid Parvaresh & Puyu Ning
2019. Morality, moral order, and language conflict and aggression. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 7:1 ► pp. 6 ff. DOI logo

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