Politeness In Courtroom Discourse

Courtroom discourse is a typical institutional discourse which is usually goal-directed and task-oriented.Meanwhile,politeness is the symbol of the civilization and progress of human society.It is also one of the conduct codes of human beings.As a social activity, language use is subject to this code as well.This thesis presents a descriptive and qualitative study of politeness in Chinese courtroom discourse.At he same time,this study attempts to prove that Gu Yueguo's Chinese politeness principle also fits Chinese courtroom discourse-a typical institutional discourse.The qualitative method is employed to analyze the data collected from two Chinese civil cases and two criminal cases.The first part of this thesis gives a brief introduction about the research background,aims and significance of the study,method,and data as well.Part two is about literature review on the study of linguistic politeness,courtroom discourse and politeness in courtroom discourse.It is discovered that few scholars at home paid attention to politeness in courtroom discourse,not to mention adopting Gu's Chinese politeness principle to analyze Chinese courtroom discourse.Part three is about the overview of related theories.Leech's Politeness Principle,Gu Yueguo's Chinese Politeness Principle,Brown and Levinson's Face Saving Theory are first introduced. Then the Principle of Goal-Direction is introduced.Finally,a theoretical framework for the present study is formed.Taking Chinese Politeness Principle and Face Saving Theory as the theoretical basis,politeness and politeness strategies in courtroom are examined and exemplified.Then the Principle of Goal-Direction is adopted to explain the reason. In part four,the author first analyzes four cases,and finds that politeness phenomena do exist in Chinese courtroom discourse though impoliteness exists,and then points out three politeness strategies in courtroom discourse.What's more,the author adopts Principle of Goal-Direction to explain the phenomena and the reason for politeness strategies,that is,to achieve participants' different goals.Part five is the conclusion part. Through descriptive and empirical analysis of four Chinese courtroom trials,this thesis holds that though Gu's Chinese Politeness Principle is based on Chinese culture,it also applies to courtroom discourse,at the same time,Face Saving Theory and Principle of language.In the end,the author summarizes the whole thesis and points out its limitations.In this thesis,Gu's Chinese Politeness Principle is first adopted to analyze Chinese courtroom discourse.The author hopes that this study can help participants in Chinese courtroom trials improve their self-expression and ability to respond in communication. This paper acts a tentative attempt.Limitations exist.It is expected to be broadened and deepened.