The Cognitive Study of Courtroom Examination

Previous studies from rhetorical,sociolinguistic,conversation analysis and pragmatic perspectives, fail to delve into the mental operation of the courtroom proceedings. To make clear the cognitive mechanism hidden in the strategies adopted by lawyers in courtroom examination, the present study proposes a cognitive approach by bringing Conceptual Integration Theory into the analysis. In this way, the combination of conceptual integration theory with courtroom examination will create a new perspective for the research of both cognitive and forensic linguistics.