Language Dispute In Reputation Infringement Suits: An Approach From Components Of A Speech Event

Due to the complicated language use and poorly-defined law, reputation infringement suits are controversial and difficult to handle. The judicial standard for reputation infringement turns out to be an abstract and impractical formula, as a result of the lack of an analysis framework.SPEAKING, components of speech events proposed by Hymes, specifies a set of factors which could affect a speech event during the process of language production and interpretation. Those factors are virtually contextual parameters for analyzing speech. Defamation and insult are legally defined speech events. Whether a particular wording is defamatory or insulting can be ascertained by examining components of the speech event involved. By specifying a set of parameters potential to affect speech, SPEAKING provides us with a framework for language analysis. As for the question of how to access and pin down an appropriate interpretation while analyzing those potentially decisive parameters, the relevance theory offers us an answer. Human interpretation is relevance-oriented. People will take an assumption as the interpretation only if it has maximum contextual effect and at the same time minimum mental effort, i.e. optimal relevance. Contextual effect and mental effort rely heavily on context, and SPEAKING provides precisely a set of comprehensive contextual parameters. The two theories complement each.other, therefore, they are combined and applied to the description of case adjudication in this thesis. In the courtroom debate, the plaintiff and defendant, approaching from different speech event components, conjure up different contexts andthen give two divergent or even conflicting interpretations to the same language at issue. By following the rule of relevance, Judges weigh the relevance of the interpretations in terms of contextual effects and processing efforts, to seek the optimal relevant interpretation and render a decision accordingly.This thesis examined and expounded on law issues: defamation and insult from the linguistic approach of SPEAKING and relevance theories. The two theories combined will shed some light on the complicated problem of language suits and answered relevant questions respectively. The present author hopes that this tentative research could help judges ascertain language meaning so as to render a fair and just decision, and that it could also help litigants to establish a charge or support a defense.