Prosody and discursive ethé construction in telephone crimes

Abstract

This study aims to present how certain suprasegmental characteristics related to prosody can contribute to the construction and maintenance of certain discursive ethé that seek to legitimatize the subject that argues. We based the analysis of the corpus on the theoretical and methodological framework of the Theory Semiolinguistics of Discourse (CHARAUDEAU, 2012, 2015) and Perelman and Tyteca (2005). The corpus consists of three phone records originating from fake kidnapping strokes and a recording of prizewinning cellphone recharge. After the analysis of the empirical material, we noted certain prosodic brands such as rhythm and intonation may contribute to the formation of ethos of potency by the criminal, as well as the construction of the ethos of competence. The construction of the ethos is a way that the subject ensures legitimacy for his person and credibility to their arguments.