The Application Of Presupposition In Investigative Interrogation

Nowadays, crimes have been more and more complicated and hidden. While the investigative technique is not so advanced, so it is always not easy for the interrogators to find out all the criminal facts and evidences before the interrogation. The suspect who knows the facts is the main source for obtaining clues. Investigators are always trying their best to reproduce the case which was done by someone in some place in the past through investigative technique. Only the suspect himself, not others, knows the criminal facts. While the suspect thinks he is lucky enough to escape the penalty, he always conceals the criminal facts and resists interrogation. That is why the interrogation is not always smooth. Evidences are inadequate, time is short, case is complicated and the number of other awaiting cases is large, thus investigators have to find some interrogative skills if they want to handle the case efficiently.The primary task of investigative interrogation is to collect and obtain evidence and to find out all the facts of the case so as to determine the real criminal and clear up the case. To accomplish these tasks, the interrogatory language is required to be concise, hidden and strategic. Presupposition with its special features is an effective way to make the interrogatory language concise, hidden and strategic.Now we can say it is not only necessary but also possible to apply presupposition in the investigative interrogation.This thesis aims to explore how investigative interrogators use presupposition to acquire favorable information from the suspects during the criminal investigative interrogation. On the basis of presupposition theory, the author endeavors to analyze how different presuppositions are used in investigative interrogation.Chapter One is the introduction, mainly including research questions, studies of domestic forensic linguistics and foreign forensic linguistics, and organization of this thesis.Chapter Two reviews relevant theory on presupposition which provides theoretical support to the analysis of the application of presupposition theory in investigative interrogation, including definition of presupposition, two approaches to presupposition, properties of presupposition, classification of presupposition and the 13 kinds of presupposition triggers.Chapter Three discusses the criminal investigation; the concept, tasks and legal requirements of investigative interrogation; and features of interrogatory language. Then the author analyzes the possibility and necessity of the application of presupposition in investigative interrogation.Chapter Four analyzes the application of presupposition in investigative interrogation at lexical level and syntactic level, the functions of presupposition in investigative interrogation and the risks existing in the application of presupposition in investigative interrogation.Chapter Five proposes the implications for linguistics, implications for judicial practice, limitations of the present study and suggestions for further studies.