"Phonetic Peculiarities of the Defence Speech of a Lawyer "

Abstract

"The article aims to uncover the phonetic peculiarities of an attorney’s defence speech in the English and Kazakh languages from the perspective of persuasive speech technique. The reason for analysing the phonetical peculiarities of an attorney’s defence speech is that the responsibilities of an attorney comprise the litigation of the client from the beginning to the end of the case; in particular, working with the client, revealing evidence and witnesses; identifying, selecting, and collecting paperwork; talking with the client to formulate the exhibits; clarifying the issue through questions and answers, and the last step is defending in court. These activities require an attorney to be well acquainted with legal literature and the language of the court, which precisely, takes place in the courtroom. Thus, we have collected the fragments of attorney defence speech that took place at the trial from the YouTube channel and analysed the phonetic features using the Praat computer program. The authors demonstrate how phonetic features are realised during cross-questioning moments using excerpts from an attorney’s persuasive speech. These findings shed light on how the persuasive speech of the attorney can create the discursive space and phonological features of the speech to effectively impact the process. "