There-existential Sentences in Trial: A Corpus-based Approach

Abstract

With the evolution of corpus techniques, there are the possibilities of computers' capacity for fast, accurate and complex analyses, which could benefit linguists describing linguistic characteristics in different registers. Applying corpus linguistics as methods and trial transcripts as materials, the present study is concerned with there-existential sentence pattern, one traditional grammar. After analyzing data extraction, four detailed sentence patterns are explored with examples. Such a way to examine the data could benefit understandings and interpretations from Halliday's metafunction theory. Since the materials selected from trial transcripts are spoken legal language, which have both the characteristics of legal language and oral language, results show that existential there, beyond the guidance of new information and new topic, has two more functions---stressed information and corporation; and make bedding for latter interactive, which are the combinational application of all three metafunctions. This paper, as an example of corpus-based approach, shows corpus linguistics great potential, for more comprehensive descriptions of linguistics features and the various understandings of linguistic theory in legal domain. KEYWORD: Corpus; There-existential sentence; There; Metafunctions