An Analysis Of The Construction Of Discourse Power In Chinese Courtroom Trial From The Perspective Of Context

Courtroom discourse reflects the asymmetry of power produced by the disproportion ofdiscourse resources among the participants in the trial; in the meantime, the asymmetry ofpower affects the content and formation of courtroom discourse in return. Recently inChina, scholars in the research field of the relationship between courtroom discourse andpower, focus on studying the courtroom conversation while pay little attention to therelationship between courtroom discourse and power from the perspective of the contexttheory. Therefore, the author of this thesis takes advantage of the context theory to studythe influence, status of the participants in the courtroom and how they realize their powerwith a focus on Chinese trial from the perspective of the context theory.This thesis adopts the context theory to analyze the discourse power from theperspective of context and attempt to reveal the relationship between the courtroomdiscourse and power. Based on the transcripted material of courtroom trial recording, theauthor analyzes the courtroom discourse to obtain the following goals:1. Reveal the status of participants in the courtroom2. Reveal the manifestation of the power control of the courtroom discourse3. Discuss the approaches of the power control or power resistance of the courtroomdiscourseThe author attempts to apply the context theory to analyze the courtroom discourse inthe three dimensions such as the context of situation, context of co-context and context ofculture. In the context of situation, the author analyzes the scene of courtroom, roles thatparticipants play, and then discovers that in the courtroom, the power is distributed in afixed form to every participant. In the context of co-context, the focus is to study thediscourse means used by judges, public prosecutors, lawyers, plaintiffs and defendants.Actually, courtroom trial is a process reflecting the power contest among the participants inthe courtroom. Judges have the supreme power of indicating, inquiring and interrupting.Public prosecutors and lawyers are next to the judges in the hierarchy of discourse powerin the courtroom. Plaintiffs and defendants can only provide specific answer to others’questions，who are in a position of being dominated. In the context of culture, it presents the studies of different legal systems，different legal culture, different court architectureand different background of participants in the courtroom and the impact of these factors inthe courtroom discourse and distribution of the power in courtroom.For all these reasons, the author employs the context theory to analyze the courtroomdiscourse in China. The innovation of this thesis lies in the context theory applied in thethesis.