A Seattle University linguist has shown that arrested suspects soften their language into a more deferential form, avoiding direct commands and deliberately weakening their statements as not to be confrontational. This submissive form of speech, technically referred to as the "female register" (probably because it was found in (traditionally submissive) women's speaking patterns), uses conditional forms of verbs such as "might", "may" or "should", questions instead of assertions, and weakening phrases like "kind of". Not surprisingly, hard-nosed cops often ignore statements like "I better get a lawyer, hadn't I?", and suspects end up confessing without a lawyer present. (via Unknown News)

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