Language, Power and Control in Courtroom Discourse

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the role of metadiscourse in counsels' questions during the witness examination, considering in particular the case of public inquiries in Great Britain. It discusses the functions of both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse in the realization of lawyers' argumentative strategies to build up effective questions in the two phases of the witness examination, namely the examination-in-chief and the cross-examination. Metadiscourse can be seen as an open category to which speakers are able to add new items according to the needs of the context. The non-integrative model restricts metadiscourse to refer to linguistic elements 'whose functions in the first place is to describe the text in which they are located', while interpersonal elements are largely excluded. Metadiscourse offers a framework for understanding communication as social engagement, as it signals the attitude towards the content and the audience of a text. Metadiscourse is therefore an important link between a text and its context.