Journal
JOURNAL OF PRAGMATICS
Volume 105, Issue -, Pages 18-38Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2016.09.010
Keywords
Police interrogation; Rhetorical questions; Suspect; Challenging; Serbo-Croatian
Categories
Funding
- Dorothy Hodgkin Graduate Award Scheme, UK
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article explores the use of rhetorical questions by suspects in police interrogations, a practice which departs from the norm whereby detectives are the ones who ask questions. Suspects' rhetorical questions occur in an argumentative sequential environment as a response to the detectives' initial damaging turns. They oppose the detectives by means of the suspects' primary access to what they are being accused of and are heard as strong statements of opposite polarity which issue a challenge. Contrary to the commonly held opinion that rhetorical questions do not need to be answered, most of the suspects' rhetorical questions are treated as challenges and are counter-challenged by the detectives. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available