A Study On Discourse Strategies In Question-Response Interaction In Chinese Courtroom

Forensic linguistics is a newly developed branch of linguistics. Both in China and other parts of the world, more and more people begin to carry out research in this field. This thesis only deals with one aspect of forensic linguistics- research on courtroom discourse. The majority of the research on courtroom discourse is based on the Anglo-American jurisdiction. Little has been done on Chinese courtroom. As the studies on courtroom discourse has developed for only twenty years abroad, and at home few people involve in it, there is a great need to go into this field. We can draw on the experience of other countries, but as the language system and law system are quite different, it is impossible to copy their experience. Therefore, having successful experiences of others to go by, this thesis explores the discourse strategies of both questioners and respondents in question-response interaction in Chinese courtroom. It aims to achieve a relatively comprehensive understanding of the relationship between goals and discourse strategies.The language data is collected and transcribed from seven civil trials and two administrative trials in Chinese courtroom and has undergone strict transcription, which almost preserves the dynamic, process-oriented, and on-line characteristics. The author creates an analytical model for analysis of discourse strategies by combining the three theories—the ethnomethodological method for discourse analysis, the model of strategic discourse processing, and the principle of goal direction and goal analysis. By adopting a descriptive, qualitative and quantitative method in examining the relationship between goals and discourse strategies of different participants in Chinese courtroom, the following conclusions may be drawn. Both judges and lawyers employ a lot of A-not-A questions. This kind of questions can give the respondents some freedom to choose between positive and negative answers as well as gain some control over the respondents. Judges choose different question forms in different trial stages while lawyers choose different question forms in different kinds of examinations. This is because judges have different missions to accomplish in different trial stages and lawyers have different goals to pursue in different kinds of examinations. Respondents' discourse strategies are closely related to their goal relations with questioners. In civil and administrative cases, the goal relation between respondents (defendants, plaintiffs, and witnesses) and judges is neutral. So all the respondents are willing to cooperate with the judges. The goal relation between defendants or plaintiffs and attorneys of the other party is conflicting. Under these circumstances, either the defendants or the plaintiffs are on the alert to the questioners and try to get out of the control of the attorneys. Therefore, they only react to the questions and say something that is irrelevant to the questions but favorable to their own party. Witnesses' discourse strategies are different in different kinds of examinations. In direct examinations, they cooperate with the questioners perfectly in order to verify some favorable facts and convince the judges of their words. In cross-examinations, they seize every chance to gain control over the presentation of testimony. Therefore, they can help their attorneys win the cases. To sum up, both the questioners and the respondents choose their discourse strategies in accordance with their goals. In pace with the change of their goals, their discourse strategies will definitely change. Therefore, we can discover their goals by analyzing their discourse strategies.Moreover, this thesis generates some theoretical and practical implications. It contributes to the depiction of actual courtroom practice in China. The data-based analysis offers a practical method in analyzing other kinds of dynamic interaction. It implies that the analytical model of this study can be applied to the analysis of other institutional and daily conversation. This research facilitates the linguistic consciousness of the legal professionals and also helps language to receive the attention that it deserves in courtroom. If due attention is given to courtroom discourse, more research would take this area as the focus, which would further enrich the forensic study. By doing such a research, the author also anticipates a little contribution to the development of Chinese judicial system.