A corpus-based study of Linguistic and Legal Functions of the Discourse Marker “Khob” in the Iranian Judicial System

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University , Khorramabad, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran.

Abstract

This study examines the role of the discourse marker khob in courtroom interactions across three legal contexts—civil, criminal, and family courts—in Persian-speaking judicial settings. Utilizing a corpus linguistics approach and the AntConc software, the collected data comprising 96,373 words from court cases in Dorud County were analyzed. The objective of this research is to identify the functional differences of khob across these three types of courts and to investigate the influence of institutional roles on its usage. The findings indicate that the frequency and manner of using khob vary across different court types. In criminal courts, legal interrogators exhibited the highest use of this discourse marker, reflecting its role in discourse management, turn-taking regulation, conversational control, and information elicitation. Conversely, in family courts, lay participants used khob to maintain their speaking turn, create pauses, organize thoughts, and emphasize their stance. The results confirm that khob functions not only as a discourse marker but also as a control strategy.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Linguistic Studies: Theory and Practice

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 26 June 2025

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History

  • Receive Date: 01 April 2025
  • Revise Date: 21 June 2025
  • Accept Date: 26 June 2025

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