An Empirical Study On Stance Construction Of Echo Utterances In Chinese Courtroom

Since the rise in the 1960 s,the study of forensic linguistics has achieved fruitful results.Because of its impromptu and dynamic nature,courtroom discourse has become one of the hottest research categories of forensic linguistics.In courtroom interaction,every word spoken bears the traces of stance.Scholars at home and abroad have carried out some researches on stance and echo questions.However,few have explored the core function of echo utterances in courtroom from the perspective of stance: the speaker uses echo utterances to express his alignment in different degrees and different emotions toward the views or stances expressed by the other party’s utterance(prior utterances).Therefore,based on the self-built corpus,the thesis uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to reveal the main features of echo utterances in Chinese criminal trials.Besides,based on the stance triangle,the thesis constructs an analytical framework for the stance construction of echo utterances in Chinese courtroom,based on which an exploration of stance construction of echo utterances is made.At last,an exploration on restrictive factors when participants applying echo utterances to construct stances is undergone through several aspects,including goal relations,interaction needs and information.Consequently,the study aims to answer three questions:1)What are the main features of echo utterances in Chinese courtroom?2)In Chinese courtroom,what stances do echo utterances construct?3)What are the restrictive factors behind the stance construction among different participants?Through analysis,the study found:1)Echo utterances have special linguistic and distributional features.Linguistic features include speech pattern,sentence pattern and interaction pattern.Firstly,in courtroom interaction,the original first-person subject in the prior utterances is changed into the second person in the echo utterances,or the subject and predicate in the prior utterances are omitted in the echo utterances,making the echo utterances free indirect speeches.Secondly,almost all the prior utterances are declaratives,and the proportion of prior utterances being interrogatives is extremely low;echo utterances can be either declaratives or interrogatives,and the proportions of both are almost equal.What’s more,there are three kinds of interaction pattern.Last,in terms of distribution of echo utterances,echo utterances are used at all stages of courtroom trials and by all major participants,but the number varies.Among the three stages of the court trial,the number of echo utterances used in the court investigation stage is much higher than that of echo utterances used in the court opening stage and the court debate stage.In terms of the use of echo utterances,the judge is the one who uses the highest percentage,and the defendant is the one who uses the lowest percentage of echo utterances.The highest number of being echoed is the defendant and the lowest number belongs to the judge.The differences in the use of echo utterances among participants reveal the differences in status and power in the courtroom,and also reflect the tendency of judges and prosecutors to use more echo utterances to repeat the sentences of others and thus put themselves in a stronger position.2)It was found that echo utterances construct five main stances in courtroom interactions: alignment,proximate-alignment,neutral,doubt,and dis-alignment.First of all,what stances echo utterances construct is not completely decided by their types.Secondly,of the five stances,neutral stances account for the largest proportion,and disalignment account for the least percentage.The reason is that judges,prosecutors and defenders,during the trial,need to echo what the defendants or appellants answer to ask for clarification or verification to get the whole picture of the case and find out the truth,while too much dis-alignments will cause conflicts and noncooperation.3)It is found that participants,when using echo utterances to construct stances,are inevitably constrained to such three main restrictive factors as goal relations,interaction needs and information.There are three kinds of goal relations: goal convergence,goal neutrality and goal divergence.When two goals are convergent,the two speakers are more likely to align convergently.When two speakers have neutral goals,they are less likely to align divergently.When two speakers are divergent in goals,they are less likely to align convergently.In courtroom,the various participants need to make efforts to achieve the common goal in the courtroom: to ensure a fair and impartial trial process and ultimately a successful decision on justice.It implies that question should be asked in a logical way and cooperation should be promoted.Echo utterances can be used to find the truth step by step and promote cooperation.Information serves as not only a defense arsenal,but also a pivotal factor in determining verdicts.Consequently,it is imperative for participants to possess a precise and accurate understanding of the information presented in court.However,due to the information gap and ambiguity that often exist,effective communication necessitates the practice of echoing other’s utterances to ask for confirmation or verification,which implies echo utterances triggered by information are more likely to construct neutral stance.Based on the stance triangle,this study explores the main features,stanceconstructing function,and restrictive factors on the use of echo utterances in Chinese courtroom trials.The study not only contributes new research perspectives to echo utterances,enriches its research content,and strengthens the explanatory power and applicability of stance triangle theory in courtroom discourse,but also reveals certain problems in Chinese courtroom interactions to a certain extent,thus providing enlightenments for China’s courtroom trial practice and judicial system reform.