Features of Persuasiveness and Suggestiveness in Legal Discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of persuasiveness and suggestiveness as well as ways of their manifestation. The phenomenon of persuasiveness has become the center of attention for many scientists lately, especially since nowadays the ways of influence on public opinion have become more complex and not so obvious. And furthermore, suggestiveness is the new trend in linguistic research. That is why it is important to analyse, on the one hand, how persuasiveness and suggestiveness are manifested on the linguistic level and, on the other hand, how they influence the arrangement of the language means in the texts of legal discourse. The goal of the research was achieved with the help of such scientific methods as: linguistic observation and analysis as well as cognitive method, critical discourse analysis method, pragmatic analysis method. The type of discourse (either persuasive or suggestive) determines both the choice of language means and their arrangement. Fronting, discourse markers, sentences with introductory there and it as well as extraposed sentences are widely used in the suggestive type of discourse while nominalisation and transferred negation are inherent in the persuasive type. In the texts of persuasive discourse neutral lexical means are primarily used, whereas emotionally charged adjectives and adverbs, idioms and intensifying words are characteristic of the suggestive discourse. From the point of arrangement, the persuasive type is clearly structured and can be presented in the form of scheme. The suggestive type has no clear logical construction. More detailed analysis of the legal discourse (persuasiveness and suggestiveness in writing) is the prospect of further research studies.

Keywords

• persuasiveness, suggestiveness, linguistic means, discourse markers, extraposition, fronting, transferred negation, nominalisation