The Interaction Of Roles In The Criminal Courtroom Discourse

Forensic linguistics is a burgeoning branch of linguistic studies in China as well as in the other parts of the world. Much effort has been made in the field of both forensic and legislative language in the Anglo-American world. Their studies mainly focus on the following four areas: interactional dynamics in the courtroom; the formal and functional properties of questions and answers; styles of testimony and their influence on juries, and finally, power and ideology in trial language. Although in such kind of studies, roles are often mentioned and considered a very important element in studying courtroom discourse, but no special thesis has focused on the study. In china, the study of the courtroom discourse is still in its infant time, so there is also no special thesis on this topic. From this perspective, it's very important to study roles in courtroom discourse; it is a complete new area for the exploration.Why is the study of roles in courtroom discourse very important? It's well known that courtroom discourse is a typical institutional discourse. The institutionality of dialogue is constituted by participants through their orientation to relevant institutional roles and identities, and the particular responsibilities and duties associated with those roles; and through their production and management of institutionally relevant tasks and activities. The study of institutional dialogue thus focuses on the ways in which conduct is shaped or constrained by the participants' orientations to social institution, either as their representatives or in various senses as their "clients". Analyzing institutional dialogue involves investigating how their orientation to and engagement in their institutional roles and identities is manifest in the details of participants' language, and their use of language to pursue institutional goals. Thus it's really very important to explore the roles interaction in the courtroom discourse. The present study will explore this area on the basis of the transcripted data which is natural, authentic and objective.In Sociology and Psychology, roles have been studied since the beginning of...