The Lawyer’s Discourse in the Courtroom: A Contrastive Study in English and Arabic

Abstract

The study is restricted to examine and contrast the linguistic features (lexical, syntactic, discourse and pragmatic) of the English and Arabic lawyers’ discourse in the courtroom. Eight trials are selected for the sake of comparison and investigation: four English trials and four Arabic ones with sixteen lawyers (eight for the plaintiff and eight for the defendant). Carrying out the analysis relies on the use of the constructed model and the statistical program called “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences” (SPSS) that is used in this study to analyze the collected data statistically. The current study is mainly an attempt to put a spot of light on the special lawyer’s language in the courtroom in English and Arabic, and also to investigate this jargon by means of some stated levels. The study arrives at the unique features of legal language, and at some significant similarities and differences between English and Arabic.