The Effect of Forensic Discourse on the Usage of Words in Civil Court Based on the Categorization of Conceptual Relations

The effect of court speech can be affected by using verbal and non-verbal cues. Verbal acts transfer their linguistic contents of necessary language use and nonlinguistic components such as body movements. This study aims at investigating the effect of on lexical and phrasal use in people’s forensic discourses in civil courts following Safavi’s (2011) categorization model of lexical conceptual relations. Every word, phrase, clause, a sentence has a meaning which can be transferred by linguistic and nonlinguistic elements. Linguistic components of meaning are concerned with lexicons and syntax. The research data gathered from two video clips of getting divorces by agreement in order to study lexical collocation, combination, deviation, inflection, and semantic relations at the word and sentence level. The results indicated that identifying the linguistic and correct use of lexical structures and grammatical patterns cause interactional communications positively and efficiently. People are not often aware of linguistic elements in their defenses of the courts. The results showed that linguistic norm deviations are affected by the selection of lexemes. In the courts, the judge and attorney should pay much attention to maintaining and deviating the speech values from forensic perspectives.