Language Tools For A Harmonious Dialogue In The English Legal Discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of language tools of hedging in the legal discourse, which allows for a better understanding of the language use in a particular social institution. The purpose of the article is to explore the language of a courtroom procedure so as to identify certain linguistic means aimed at preventing speech conflict and maintaining harmonious communication. The authors analyze and describe the basic means of hedging that professional and non-professional interlocutors use in the courtroom discourse to minimize the force of statements which convey uncertainty, indicate communicative support or interest, – and ultimately to facilitate communicative goals of the speakers. Special attention is given to such language tools of hedging, as modal verbs, modal adverbs, discourse markers, all of which play a crucial role in preserving the “face” of speakers as well as harmony in conversation and social interaction. The authors have established that the typical language tools of a harmonious dialogue in the courtroom discourse are modal verbs and discourse markers indicating the strategies of indetermination and subjectivisation. In the legal discourse, language tools of hedging reduce the degree of imposition, disagreement and contradictions, – a feature indicative of the speakers’ interest in the positive outcome, of their competence in the field of rhetoric while engaged in the process of professional interaction.