Addressee as a key factor of courtroom discourse production

Abstract

The article analyses the role of the addressee as a factor determining discourses of legal professionals. The important role of this factor makes it necessary to account for the effect of the addressee on discourse production, identify linguistic and cognitive mechanisms optimizing communicative interaction of the addresser and the addressee in the courtroom. The focus on the addressee, addressee’s phenomenological experience and knowledge makes legal discursive practices dialogical, and intensifies their interactive characteristics. Special attention is paid to the linguistic cognitive mechanism “transition from the term to the notion” which allows for formation of the shared interpretation context when professionals interact with lay persons in the courtroom setting. Clarity of judicial speeches depends on the ability of the speaker to switch from the professional code to the language of lay people, define legal terms through lay concepts. The novelty of the research is due to the choice of the research trajectory which is based on the issue of the addressee for producing courtroom discourses. The article concludes that the perlocutionary effect of the communication depends on the ability of the speaker to accommodate to lay participants, to the knowledge and expectations of the lay audience.