Title:
CRITICALLY ANALYZING THE DISCOURSE OF A WITNESS'S IDEOLOGICAL MOTIVATION IN A TRIAL TESTIMONY

Authors:
Lect. Amer Sagheer Allwan Al Amery (Ph.D.)

Abstract:
The discourse of (Expert) witnesses' testimonies represents one of the most important legal texts that occupy great importance within the legal system. Such testimonies usually full of ideologies whether overt or covert, that affect the course of courtroom trials. The theories and approaches of critical discourse analysis can be of great advantage in detecting, analyzing and explaining these ideologies and their motivation. The researcher chooses Wodak's (2009) Discourse-Historical Approach DHA approach in analyzing the discourse of the selected expert witness testimony as it provides the sound umbrella of analyzing such kinds of discourse. The conducted analysis proves that CDA approaches are useful in analysing such kinds of texts to detect the linguistic strategies and devices used by the expert witness such as contextual factors, focusing, hedging, naming, repetition, etc. to defend his stance.

Keywords:
Critical Discourse Analysis, Ideological Motivation, Ideology, Expert Witness, Testimony

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37500/IJESSR.2023.6508