Process Control Through Question And Response In Court: From The Perspective Of Information Flow

Applying legal discourse information structure theory, this study is an exploration of process control in the question-response of China's criminal court from the angle of information flow. The aim is to investigate the linguistic realization and mechanism of process control, and to demonstrate its influence on discourse information and its functions in realizing the goals of different participants in court.We find, in the data extracted from the Corpus of Legal Information Processing System (CLIPS), the two modes of process control: anticipative control and follow-up control. The analysis indicates that in court investigation the questioner arranges question serials carefully before questioning. If the responder is not cooperative, the questioner adjusts follow-up questions neatly to realize process control. Hence there are alternation and combination of the two modes in courtroom question-response. It is also found from the inter-sentence development of information in courtroom discourse that legal discourse information elements can be taken as the units of information flow in process control. Advancement of Process elements provides presupposition for later questions. Summary, change and addition of elements of entity and replacement of Process by entity contribute to realization of control as well.This research shows the mechanism of process control from the textual development of information in the discourse of courtroom question-response. Process control is understood as a dynamic process under the influence of both questioner's anticipation and responder's evasion from control. There are linear structure and hierarchical structure in anticipative control, whereas there is only hierarchical structure in follow-up control, in which different relationships between information knot and its subordinate information knots suggest various strategies of the questioner to regain control.Moreover, this study reveals that because of process control, information sluggish flow and vortex flow emerge alternatively, and the information increment in question-response discourse acquires the feature of orderliness and purposiveness. The interpersonal function of process control enables public prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges to achieve their own purpose and perform their respective duty with process control.It is hoped that this thesis may enrich the study of legal discourse, enlarge the knowledge of the nature of courtroom question-response and deepen the understanding of how process control contributes to control over information.