A Pragmatic Analysis Of Deixis And Distance In Court Arguments

The present study probes into the uses of deixis in court arguments. Its aim is to identify the deictic expressions which can effect physical (spatial and temporal), social and psychological proximity or distance and investigate how the choices of these deictic expressions as a dynamic process of adaptation contribute to the persuasion of court arguments.The theoretical framework is built incorporating Yule (2000) and other linguists' studies on deixis and distance and Verschueren's (1999) Theory of Linguistic Adaptation. The data to be analyzed consist of twenty court arguments among which ten are Chinese data and ten are English data. Studies on deixis and distance by Yule (2000) and other linguists will first serve to identify and describe the deictic expressions which can effect physical, social and psychological proximity or distance. Verschueren's (1999) Adaptation Theory will then be taken up as an explanatory tool to investigate how the choices of these deictic expressions as a dynamic process of adaptation contribute to the persuasion of court arguments. Our analysis will be divided into three parts where deictic expressions in relation to the three parties of the court, namely, judge and/or jury, the opposing side and the side of the counsel who presents the court argument, are to be investigated. In this process, three different pictures of uses of deictic expressions are found in relation to these three parties. We conclude that these differences are the result of the dynamic choice making process in adaptation to the physical, social and mental factors of the communicative context of the courtroom, which in turn contribute to the persuasion of the court arguments.