Exploring courtroom discourse : the language of power and control

286 Pages·2011·1.912 MB·English

by  Anne Wagner, Le Cheng

Exploring Courtroom Discourse
The Language of Power and Control

Edited by
Anne Wagner and Le Cheng
Exploring Courtroom DisCoursE
law, language and Communication
series Editors
Anne Wagner, université du littoral Côte d’opale, France and
Vijay Kumar Bhatia, City university of Hong Kong
this series encourages innovative and integrated perspectives within and across
the boundaries of law, language and communication, with particular emphasis
on issues of communication in specialized socio-legal and professional contexts.
it seeks to bring together a range of diverse yet cumulative research traditions
related to these fields in order to identify and encourage interdisciplinary
research.
the series welcomes proposals – both edited collections as well as single-
authored monographs – emphasizing critical approaches to law, language
and communication, identifying and discussing issues, proposing solutions to
problems, offering analyses in areas such as legal construction, interpretation,
translation and de-codification.
For further information on this and other series from Ashgate publishing,
please visit: www.ashgate.com
Exploring Courtroom Discourse
the language of power and Control

Edited by
AnnE WAgnEr
Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale, France
and
lE CHEng
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
© Anne Wagner, le Cheng and the Contributors 2011
All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Anne Wagner and le Cheng have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
Ashgate publishing limited Ashgate publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Exploring courtroom discourse: the language of power and control. – (law, language and
communication)
1. semiotics (law) 2. Forensic oratory. 3. Conduct of court proceedings –terminology.
4. psycholinguistics.
i. series ii. Wagner, Anne, 1968- iii. Cheng, le.
340.1’4-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wagner, Anne, 1968-
Exploring courtroom discourse : the language of power and control / by Anne Wagner and
le Cheng.
p. cm. – (law, language and communication)
includes bibliographical references and index.

isBn 978-1-4094-2347-8 (hardback : alk. paper) – isBn 978-1-4094-2348-5 (ebook)
1. law–language. 2. Conduct of court proceedings–language. 3. semantics (law) 4.
Judicial process–language. 5. law–methodology. i. Cheng, le. ii. title.
K213.W337 2011
347.001’4--dc22
2010052226
isBn 9781409423478 (hbk)
isBn 9781409423485 (ebk)
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Foreword: Power of and to Language in Law xv
Deborah Cao
1 Language, Power and Control in Courtroom Discourse 1
Anne Wagner and Le Cheng
PART I PoweR And ConTRol In lAnguAge
2 Understanding Courtroom Communication through
Cultural Scripts 11
Kim McCaul
3 Witnesses on Trial: Address and Referring Terms in US Cases 29
Sarah Dettenwanger
4 (False) Confessions Become Compelling at Trial 47
Gillian Grebler
5 The Role of Metadiscourse in Counsels’ Questions 79
Silvia Cavalieri
6 Constructing Lega l Narratives: Client-lawyers’ Stories 111
Flora Di Donato
PART II PoweR And ConTRol behInd lAnguAge
7 Magical Images in Law 131
Christine A. Corcos
8 The Construction of Admissions of Fault through American Rules
of Evidence: Speech, Silence and Significance in the Legal
Creation of Liability 177
Janet Ainsworth
vi Exploring Courtroom Discourse
9 The Construction of Truth in Legal Decision-making 193
Petrina Schiavi
10 Hidden Penalties Faced by Non-English Speakers in the
UK Criminal Justice System: An Interpreting Perspective 209
Roxana Rycroft
11 Language Alternation in Kenyan and Malaysian Courts 227
Richard Powell and Maya Khemlani David
12 The Place of Arbitration in Online Proceedings as a Simulacrum 251
Joanna Jemielniak
Index 263
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
3.1 Victim references in closing statements 43
Tables
2.1 Semantic primes adapted from Goddard (2009) and
Wierzbicka (2006) 12
3.1 Address options 36
3.2 Rate of address usage 38
5.1 Synthesis of Hyland’s 1998 taxonomy of metadiscourse 83
5.2 Synthesis of Hyland’s 2005 taxonomy of metadiscourse 84
5.3 Re-elaborated taxonomy of metadiscourse after the preliminary
quantitative analysis of the sub-corpora 88
5.4 Code glosses frequency in the sub-corpora 90
5.5 Functions of WHICH IS 90
5.6 Function of THAT IS 90
5.7 Functions of FOR EXAMPLE 91
5.8 Evidentials frequency in the sub-corpora 92
5.9 Functions of STAT EMENT 92
5.10 Function of DOCUMENT and LETTER 93
5.11 Functions of PHOTOGRAPH 94
5.12 Examination endophoric markers frequency in the sub-corpora 94
5.13 Functions of QUESTION and ANSWER 95
5.14 Intra-evidential endophoric markers frequency in the sub-corpora 95
5.15 Keyness of self-mentions in the sub-corpora 97
5.16 Self-mention frequency in the sub-corpora 97
5.17 Functions of I 98
5.18 Functions of ME 99
5.19 Five-word clusters of WE 100
5.20 Functions of INQUIRY and TRIBUNAL 101
5.21 Engagement markers frequency in the sub-corpora 102
5.22 Functions of YOU 103
5.23 Functions of YOUR 104
viii Exploring Courtroom Discourse
5.24 Strategic booster frequency in the sub-corpora 105
5.25 Examples of OATH and TRUTH 105
5.26 Hedges frequency in the sub-corpora 106
5.27 Functions of MODAL AUXILIARIES 107
5.28 Functions of PERIPHRASIS OF POSSIBILITY/PROBABILITY 107
5.29 Summary of the frequency of metadiscourse in the corpus 108
11.1 Kenyan languages with over 100,000 reported speakers 230
11.2 Malaysian languages with over 50,000 reported speakers 234
11.3 Transcription key 236
Notes on Contributors
Janet Ainsworth is John D. Eshelman Professor of Law at Seattle University
School of Law. Her research interests center on linguistic ideology in legal doctrine
and practice, and her work has appeared in notable law reviews, including the Yale
Law Journal and the Cornell Law Review, as well as in linguistics journals. She
currently serves as an editorial adviser to the International Journal of Law and
Semiotics and on the editorial board of Oxford University Press’s series Law and
Language. She has also authored amicus curiae briefs addressing linguistic issues
in a variety of legal contexts for cases argued in the United States Supreme Court.
Deborah Cao is a Professor of Griffith University, Australia. She is a linguist and a
legal scholar. She has published in many areas involving the study of language and
law, including legal theory, legal semiotics, pragmatics and court interpreting. She
is a leading writer on legal translation, contributing to many major publications in
the field. She has also published major works on the philosophical and linguistic
analysis of Chinese law and legal culture. She researches and teaches animal law as
well. She is editor of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. Her books
include Chinese Law: A Language Perspective (Ashgate, 2004), Interpretation,
Law and the Construction of Meaning (joint editor, Springer, 2007), Translating
Law (Multilingual Matters 2007), Animals Are Not Things (China Law Press,
2007) and Animal Law in Australia and New Zealand (Thomson Reuters, 2010).
Silvia Cavalieri holds a Ph.D in Comparative Languages and Cultures from the
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Department of Linguistic Studies on
Language, Text and Tran slation. She lectured at the University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia, University of Ferrara and University of Parma. Currently she holds
a research grant at the University of Milan. Her research interests are focused on
courtroom discourse, and in particular on the linguistic strategies used by counsels
during the witness examination (that is, reformulations). She has presented her
research at international seminars and national conferences. Her publications
include “Disadvantage Before the Law: Bleak House,” Textus, 21(3) (2008),
561–80 (with M. Bondi), “Reformulation and Conflict in Witness Examination:
The Case of Public Inquiries,” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law,
22(2) (2009), 209–21, and “Migration of Forms: Reformulations in Public Inquiry
Witness Hearing,” in D. Torretta, M. Dossena and A. Sportelli (eds.), Forms of
Migration Migration of Forms: Language Studies, Proceedings of the 23rd AIA
Conference, Bari, September 20–22, 2007 (Progredit, 2009), 417–31.