The manipulative potential of grammatical means in the English-language judicial discourse

The study aims to determine the manipulative potential of the grammatical means chosen by defence attorneys and prosecutors when constructing their speeches in English-language judicial adversarial discourse (during the examination of witnesses). The article considers the main grammatical means of manipulative influence of defence attorneys / prosecutors on witness testimony. In modern linguistics, sufficient attention is paid to the issues of the communicative impact of defence attorneys and prosecutors on the court during their defensive and accusatory speeches. However, this aspect of manipulation during the examination of witnesses still remains a lacunary one. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it describes for the first time the English-language grammatical means of manipulative influence during the examination of witnesses. The transcripts of real English-language trials have been analyzed, the most frequent grammatical means of the English language used by defence attorneys and prosecutors during the examination of witnesses have been identified, those of them that have manipulative potential have been selected, described and systematized. As a result, it has been proved that during the examination of witnesses and victims, the defence attorney and the prosecutor carry out manipulative influence on the court through witnesses by using grammatical means, achieving the desired perlocutionary effect.