HOW REALITY IS CONSTRUED IN LEGAL JUDGMENTS: AN SFL ANALYSIS OF A PAKISTANI APPELLATE DECISION ON SEXUAL ASSAULT

Abstract

This paper examines the linguistic construction of the victims’ and perpetrators’ experiences as depicted in an appellate decision on a sexual assault judgment by a Pakistani High Court in 2022. Using Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the theoretical lens, the study investigates how the legal discourse of the appellate decision represents both the parties involved in the event. The data, collected from the court’s website through purposive sampling, is analyzed from a three-dimensional perspective–transitivity, ergativity, and textuality- to conduct an exhaustive study of how the language of law represents the victims and the perpetrator. Qualitative content analysis of the judgment shows that the legal drafting by Pakistani courts is critical in shaping the discourse around rape in the country. The study recommends that future researchers in linguistics and law work together to explore the role of legalese in how victims and/or perpetrators of other crimes are represented in judicial verdicts.