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Chapter 6 Between semantics and pragmatics: Witnesses’ credibility and the linguistic expression of the source of information in Italian criminal trials

  • Paolo Greco
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More than (Just) Words
This chapter is in the book More than (Just) Words

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the analysis of the linguistic strategies adopted by six lay witnesses to refer to the source of their information in the context of an Italian criminal trial for murder. Through reference to the source of the information, and through the resulting implicatures, the witnesses aim to present themselves as reliable or unreliable. We particularly focus on the various strategies, both lexical and grammatical, employed by certain witnesses to retract the statements they made during the preliminary investigation and to significantly reduce the quality of their testimony as well as the scope of their claimed knowledge of the crime.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the analysis of the linguistic strategies adopted by six lay witnesses to refer to the source of their information in the context of an Italian criminal trial for murder. Through reference to the source of the information, and through the resulting implicatures, the witnesses aim to present themselves as reliable or unreliable. We particularly focus on the various strategies, both lexical and grammatical, employed by certain witnesses to retract the statements they made during the preliminary investigation and to significantly reduce the quality of their testimony as well as the scope of their claimed knowledge of the crime.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments VII
  3. Contents IX
  4. Foreword XIII
  5. Introduction: More than (just) words 1
  6. Part I: (Just) words
  7. Legal perspectives
  8. Chapter 1 Metalanguage in the penalty phase of a capital trial: A study of two monologic genres 27
  9. Chapter 2 Political discrimination or reasonable conduct? Motive-implicative discourse moves in a civil trial’s closing arguments 49
  10. Chapter 3 Legal-lay interaction and recontextualization in Swedish criminal proceedings 73
  11. Non-legal perspectives
  12. Chapter 4 . . .and I’m telling you honestly, I don’t measure: Emotive reframing and evasiveness in expert testimony 99
  13. Chapter 5 Navigating the linguistic complexity of cross-examination: The role of the witness intermediary for an autistic defendant 127
  14. Chapter 6 Between semantics and pragmatics: Witnesses’ credibility and the linguistic expression of the source of information in Italian criminal trials 149
  15. Chapter 7 Identity construction in complainants’ narratives in the investigative public hearings on the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory administration 185
  16. Part II: More than (just) words
  17. Speech and gesture
  18. Chapter 8 I wanna be somebody: Enacted reported thought in an actual jury deliberation 213
  19. Chapter 9 Multimodal discursive authority of the judge: Analyzing the judge’s interactions with courtroom participants in Chinese criminal trials 231
  20. Image and architecture
  21. Chapter 10 Allegories of justice in contemporary France: In search of a new paradigm 267
  22. Chapter 11 Criminal law, court architecture, and the space of justice: Stakeholder perceptions of ‘special’ courts used in child sexual abuse trials in India 293
  23. Index 319
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111431789-007

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments VII
  3. Contents IX
  4. Foreword XIII
  5. Introduction: More than (just) words 1
  6. Part I: (Just) words
  7. Legal perspectives
  8. Chapter 1 Metalanguage in the penalty phase of a capital trial: A study of two monologic genres 27
  9. Chapter 2 Political discrimination or reasonable conduct? Motive-implicative discourse moves in a civil trial’s closing arguments 49
  10. Chapter 3 Legal-lay interaction and recontextualization in Swedish criminal proceedings 73
  11. Non-legal perspectives
  12. Chapter 4 . . .and I’m telling you honestly, I don’t measure: Emotive reframing and evasiveness in expert testimony 99
  13. Chapter 5 Navigating the linguistic complexity of cross-examination: The role of the witness intermediary for an autistic defendant 127
  14. Chapter 6 Between semantics and pragmatics: Witnesses’ credibility and the linguistic expression of the source of information in Italian criminal trials 149
  15. Chapter 7 Identity construction in complainants’ narratives in the investigative public hearings on the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory administration 185
  16. Part II: More than (just) words
  17. Speech and gesture
  18. Chapter 8 I wanna be somebody: Enacted reported thought in an actual jury deliberation 213
  19. Chapter 9 Multimodal discursive authority of the judge: Analyzing the judge’s interactions with courtroom participants in Chinese criminal trials 231
  20. Image and architecture
  21. Chapter 10 Allegories of justice in contemporary France: In search of a new paradigm 267
  22. Chapter 11 Criminal law, court architecture, and the space of justice: Stakeholder perceptions of ‘special’ courts used in child sexual abuse trials in India 293
  23. Index 319
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