A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE LANGUAGE OF INTERROGATION IN POLICE/CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE KANO METROPOLIS
A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE LANGUAGE OF INTERROGATION IN POLICE/CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE KANO METROPOLIS
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Date
2011-07
Authors
SADIQ, MOHAMMED TAJUDEEN
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Abstract
This study is an attempt to examine the language of the police personnel in
the Kano metropolis. The work intends to focus specifically on the
language of interrogation which is a technique in police force
communication. The study was aimed at, among other things, describing
the structure and organization of the content of police/accused discourse
and observing the communication strategies and motivation of the
participants in negotiating the interaction. Three Police Divisions were
selected for the collection of data; these Divisions are Fagge,
Normansland and Nassarawa. Tape recordings of Police interactions with
accused persons were made; personal observation of Police interactions
was also undertaken. The data were analyzed using the eclectic model of
Grice’s (1975) cooperative principles; Sinclair and Coulthard’s (1975)
discourse analytic framework and Bruton’s (1981) work. The model is an
all inclusive descriptive framework for the analysis of connected text. The
data analysis focuses on the examination of the structure of interaction
between the Investigating Police Officer and the accused person during
interrogations and explicates the multidimensional functions of language,
that is, whether it is a question, statement or command based on their
grammatical structure and location in discourse. The study reveals that the
prototypical patterns of discourse acts in Police criminal investigations are
the question/answer sequences, which are indeed common to much
institutional discourse, and that questioning forms are used to control the
flow of discourse in Police/accused interrogation. Further to this, it was
observed that one big factor that makes police personnel successful in
their crime investigation is the asymmetrical relationship that exists
between the Investigating Police Officer and the suspect. During
interrogation, the IPO, occupies a higher position than the accused person.
It is the IPO that initiate the talk, control the turns and also has the right to
ask questions from the suspects. The research reveals that police/accused
discourse is highly organized with predictable structures. The structural
harmony achieved in the discourse is premised upon the linguistic ‘acts’
employed by the IPO during the interrogation of accused persons, since it
is on all these act forms that the success of the interrogation lies.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
AND LITERARY STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA. IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE (MA)
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Keywords
DISCOURSE,, ANALYSIS,, LANGUAGE,, INTERROGATION,, POLICE/CRIMINAL,, INVESTIGATIONS,, KANO METROPOLIS