Moral Legitimation in Courtroom Discourse: A Proposal

• 발행기관: 한국영어학학회
• 저자명: Krisda Chaemsaithong Yoonjeong Kim
• 간행물 정보: 『영어학연구』영어학연구 제26권 2호, 25~48쪽, 전체 24쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2020.08.30

영문 초록

Embracing the view that the legitimacy of a social practice is discursively established and negotiated, this study proposes a linguistically grounded model for moral legitimation and examines how the State (i.e., the prosecuting lawyer) justifies a death sentence. Based on the closing summation of six capital trials, the study identifies key moral legitimation strategies and reveals the State’s ideology about crime and punishment. It is argued that such discursive strategies as evaluation, labelling, analogy, agency assignment, and emphasis on the victim’s lost future not only alienate the person on trial from the jury and the victims but also over-emphasize the “us-them” boundaries. In effect, the State denies specific personal circumstances, as required by the law.

목차

1. Introduction

2. The Penalty Phase and the Closing Argument

3. Theoretical Background

4. Data and Methodology

5. Findings

6. Conclusion

References

키워드

courtroom discourse death sentence legitimation moral legitimation strategies