It's not what you say but how you say it
The role of personality and identity in trial success
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12877508 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pamela Hobbs (0000-0003-0797-9533, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 231-248 |
| Publication date | 2008-07-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Discourse Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1740-5904 • E-ISSN: 1740-5912 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17405900802131744 |
| OpenAlex | W2132685017 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 19 |
A major focus of the study of courtroom interaction in the fields of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis has been the discursive strategies that lawyers use during trials. While acknowledging the role of rhetorical skill in influencing hearers' perceptions, this paper seeks to demonstrate that language has its limits, and that the speaker's personality and identity are key factors in determining how a verbal presentation will be received. The opening statement given by John Allen Muhammad, the ‘Beltway Sniper’, acting as his own lawyer at his murder trial, incorporated many recommended strategies and was surprisingly well crafted, but was widely derided by media commentators. Through a comparison of Muhammad's opening statement with similar presentations delivered by celebrated attorneys, this paper will explore the relationships between language, personality, and identity in the construction of legal persuasion. Specifically, this paper will argue that Muhammad's identity as a criminal defendant, coupled with his inability to project his personality in a way that would command the attention of his hearers, set the stage for a negative reception of his remarks that their content could not overcome
Aesthetics · Discourse analysis · Discursive psychology · Identity (music · Linguistics · Media studies · Personality · Persuasion · Political science · Presentation (obstetrics · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Statement (logic · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism
Dialogic features and interpersonal management in the early courtroom action game
Closing Argument as Multimodal Oratory
Observing ‘one of our own’
Investigating audience orientation in courtroom communication
Analyzing interdiscursivity in legal genres
Die Interaktionsordnung strafrechtlicher Hauptverhandlungen
Let’s kill him”
Membership categorization devices in courtroom opening and closing speeches
Affiliating With Jury
Dramatic monologues
Lawyers' metapragmatic expressions in the opening speech of Anglo-American criminal trials
Referential practice and contested identities in legal narratives
Communicating with silent addressees
Conversational Narrative
Discourse
Order in Court
Law and the Language of Identity
Talk at work
The Discursive Construction of National Identity
The racialization of language in British political discourse
Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis
Domestic Discord, Rocky Relationships
Is That What We’re Here about?’
Power and Discourse in Organization Studies
Reproducing Rape
Nailing down an answer
Intertext.1uality, affect, and ideology in legal discourse
Critical discourse analysis
Repetition in Conversation
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,18 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |