A PragmaStylistic Analysis of Hesitation and Repair in the Language of Trauma in the Courtroom

الملخص

Abuse survivors might find it difficult to speak about their experience, especially if it must be presented in public. This difficulty is reflected in their language and is at its highest when dealing with severe abuse such as violence, life-threatening incidents, assaults, or defamation. In light of this, post-traumatic speakers produce identifiable linguistic patterns that lead to the intensity of the situation. Thus, the present study aims to explore the pragmastylistic markers of hesitation, ways of repair, and avoidance strategies employed in courtroom testimony. Considering the nature of the study's main objectives, the selected data consists of courtroom testimonies during the direct examination of the well-known televised trial of the Menendez Brothers. The study focuses on the language of the two brothers during their narration of a sequence of events that led to the murder of their parents. In order to achieve these aims, the study analyses key features of spoken language, such as hesitations, pauses, and repetition, adopting Tissi’s (2000) framework on pauses and Stenstrom’s (2012) model of disfluencies.