MULTI-LEVEL VERBAL MARKERS OF SUGGESTION IN PROSECUTION ATTORNEYS’ OPENING STATEMENTS (IN THE SCOPE OF MODERN AMERICAN LEGAL THRILLERS)

Abstract

The article sets out to justify the author’s opinion on the fact that the main peculiarity of the prosecution attorneys’ opening statements is their power of suggestion, i.e. exerting emotional and psychological influence on the jury with the purpose of changing their emotions, feelings and train of thoughts in favour of the attorney and their client. A lexical-semantic classification of multi-level verbal markers of suggestion has been worked out in the article under consideration to show which language units prosecution attorneys give preference to in order to exert the influence of suggestion on the jury. The classification in question shows that the notion of suggestion exists on all speech levels: phonetic, morphological, lexical-semantic and syntactic, with lexical-semantic being the most abundant in prosecution attorneys’ opening statements. Verbal markers of suggestion on lexical-semantic level were divided into those of direct and indirect nomination. Verbal markers of suggestion on phonetic, morphological and syntactic levels perform only supplementary function in exerting the influence of suggestion on the jury members. The article concludes that the prosecution attorneys purposely use a great amount of multi-level verbal markers of suggestion at the same time to have the massive impact on the jury’s thoughts, emotions, feelings, attitudes. The classification under consideration has been worked out in the scope of modern American legal thrillers, written by professional attorneys who depict the slightest details of real American legal proceedings.