Strategic lexicalization in courtroom discourse: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis

This paper adopts a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis approach to explore the pragmatics of lexical categories in courtroom discourse. More specifically, this probes extent which interlocutors employ particular lexemes achieve specific pragmatic purposes, which, turn, contributes understanding way language operates effectively within legal settings. The data used is taken from testimony former American President William Clinton during his impeachment trial for ‘Monica Lewinsky Affair’. analytical focus on 17 representing four categories, namely nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, by highlighting their frequency distribution revealing significance as conduits meanings. Two main findings are revealed paper: first, contexts, not only content knowledge units but also meaning carriers whose functions go beyond most commonly-used semantic sense. These include information confirmation, verification, elicitation, dissociation, uncertainty, clarification. Second, applying study contextualizing linguistic use courtrooms offers more functionally based discussion