A Tentative Analysis Of Power And Ideology In Chinese Divorce Judgments

Critical Discourse Analysis believes that power and ideology are achieved through language.As one important written courtroom discourse,judicial judgments are not only the major carrier of information in judicial trial activities,but also the site of power and ideological struggle.In recent years,studies on power and ideology in judicial judgments have drawn the attention of an increasing number of linguistic scholars.Based on Critical Discourse Analysis and the three dimensional model put forward by Fairclough,this study analyzes 26 divorce judgments of first instance collected from grass-roots courts of different provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities employing both qualitative and quantitative research methods for the purpose of answering the following three questions:(1)What are the linguistic manifestation of power relation in divorce judgments of first instance?(2)What are the linguistic manifestation of marriage ideology in divorce judgments of first instance?(3)What are the socio-cultural factors that shape the above-mentioned power relation and marriage ideology?And the major findings are as follows:(1)There exists power inequality between the judge and the litigant.The judge has more power than the litigant,while the plaintiff and the defendant are in equal but opposing position.The power asymmetry between the judge and the litigant is mainly manifested in divorce judgments of first instance on three levels,namely vocabulary,grammar and generic structure.And these three levels work through making divorce judgments of first instance formal,objective and authoritative to indicate the power distance between the judge and the litigant.On the level of vocabulary,large numbers of classic Chinese words and simplified words are used;first personal pronoun is rarely used and the address forms of participates are in accordance with their role in civil legal relation;large numbers of legal terms and jargons are used.In terms of grammar,nominalization,passivization,ellipsis and imperatives are employed.As regards to generic structure,all divorce judgments of first instance share a relatively fixed and rigid large-scale structure.Whereas,the equal but opposing position between the plaintiff and the defendant can find its representation in the address forms and meaning relation.Analysis of divorce judgments of first instance also reflects that there is gender inequality in marriage life.And the inequality is mainly constructed through lexical items pertinent to domestic violence and bad habits and modality.In all divorce judgments initiated because of domestic violence and bad habits,the agent of domestic violence or the carrier of bad habits is all male defendant,which is further affirmed by a quantitative statistics.Moreover,of all the 26 divorce judgments of first instance,there are 20 in which the plaintiffs are female.This indirectly shows the gender inequality in marriage life.(2)Women’s marriage ideology is mainly constructed through lexical items like “personality conflict”,“quarrels/disputes”,“household affairs” and “through introduction”,etc.In terms of modality,modal adjunct “often” is employed most frequently to show indirectly the marriage quality between they and their husband.Whereas,the judge’s construction of marriage ideology is mainly through lexical items like “reconcile”,“value”,“mutual understanding and mutual accommodation” and subjective modality “the court holds that” as well as modality expressing obligation “should” and modality expressing possibility “can”.Although the lexical choice of the judge shows the spirit advocated by modern marriage ideology,the judge often upholds traditional marriage ideology,reinforces and reproduces gender inequality in the practice of judgments.(3)Interpretation of divorce judgments as discursive practice shows that the unequal power relation between the judge and the litigant determines the language of divorce judgments.In turn,the language of divorce judgments strengthens the realization of the unequal power relation.Furthermore,analysis at institutional level shows that the court is endowed by law with supreme position as the institution of social disputes resolution and the litigant’s civil litigation rights are equally protected by relevant law.Lastly,analysis at societal level suggests that the power relation and ideological struggle are greatly influenced by economic and cultural factors.With the developments of market economy,women’s role in family life has greatly transformed and traditional marriage ideology greatly hinders women’s development.It is often the gender power asymmetry rooted in traditional marriage view that leads to the increasing divorce disputes.And in some senses,divorce disputes can be seen as the outcome of collision between traditional marriage ideology and modern marriage ideology.The thesis is of great significance both in theory and in practice.On the one hand,it may enrich critical linguistic research in judicial language in China.In practice,it can arouse the language and power awareness of both laypersons and legal professionals and promote their critical understanding of divorce judgments of first instance.