Court Discourse Research Articles

Navigating power and impoliteness in criminal court discourse

Abstract This study uses an interactional pragmatic approach to examine impoliteness in Turkish High Criminal Court proceedings, offering an alternative perspective compared to the Anglo-American contexts typically explored in legal discourse research. Grounded in (Culpeper, Jonathan. 1996. Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics 25. 349–367.) impoliteness super strategies, the analysis draws from 45-min audio recordings of seven criminal trials, focusing on impoliteness during the examination-in-chief. The findings reveal a significant register clash, especially from a defendant who deviates from formal legal norms through misalignment, mock impoliteness, threats, and profanity. This disruption challenges courtroom decorum, affects power dynamics, and influences trial progression and interaction, underscoring the complex interplay between institutional authority and individual behavior, which shapes overall (im)politeness in the courtroom.

ANALISIS KRITIS PERUBAHAN KEWENANGAN JURU SITA DALAM PEMANGGILAN PIHAK BERPERKARA DI PENGADILAN AGAMA SUKADANA

The discussion regarding bailiffs is currently interesting to discuss. Because there is a discourse that changes the bailiff's task system, namely in summoning litigants to court. Where summoning the parties to the case is one of the important duties of the bailiff. And in this case, the Supreme Court's discourse on changing the calling system via the post office means that it is clear that there are consequences to this policy. The aim of this research is to determine the impact that occurs when a litigant is summoned to the Religious Court using the Post Office. This research is field research, using qualitative data analysis. The results of the research carried out by transferring the parties' summons to a third party post office were not in accordance with the court's principles of simplicity, speed and low costs. Because it adds bureaucracy, the bailiff should contact the next litigant directly.

Minnesang trifft Pijjut und Midrasch

Abstract The essay examines the fourteenth-century Yiddish poem ›Yosef Ha-Tsadik‹ about Joseph and Potipharʼs wife. The poem, presented here in a new critical edition, is primarily based on Hebrew and Aramaic midrashic and liturgical sources but also incorporates elements derived from German courtly love poetry, mainly to express Potipharʼs wifeʼs advances toward Joseph. It can thus be read as a Jewish dialogue with Christian secular literary traditions. Drawing on a comparison with the Jewish pretexts – some of which are presented here for the first time in German translations – and a number of examples from Minnesang, the study analyzes the strategies of both participation in and (ironic) distancing from the Christian courtly discourse.

Pragmatic Analysis of Hedges Used in Defendant's Arguments in Civil Courts--A Case Study of Lao Rongzhi

Hedges are a part of fuzzy language and play an important role in language communication. Since hedges entered into the academic world, there have been numerous researches on hedges. However, few existing studies have analyzed legal discourse from the perspective of Adaptation Theory, and few studies have been conducted on the pragmatic analysis of hedges used in defendants' arguments in civil courts. Therefore, based on the classification method of hedges by Prince, this study conducted a pragmatic analysis of hedges used by defendant in court arguments from the perspective of Adaptation Theory. The trial case of Lao Rongzhi, which has caused a great disturbance in recent years is chosen in this study. It is concluded that defendant often uses multiple hedges to adapt to the context simultaneously, resulting in different communicative effects, such as expressing respect, expressing politeness, arousing sympathy, and avoiding responsibility. The use of hedges is related to the special nature of court trial and the defendant's intention to evade responsibility and obtain a reduction in sentence. By conducting a multidimensional analysis of hedges in defendant’s arguments in court trial, this study aims to enrich the research on hedges in court discourse, increase public attention to defendant discourse, and attempt to provide some inspiration and guidance for defendants to use hedges and for judges, lawyers, and other court participants to respond to hedges.

Zur Subversion des höfischen Liebesdiskurses: Christine de PizansCent Ballades d’amant et de dame(1409–1410) zwischen Erotik, Misogynie und marienhafter Selbstinszenierung

AbstractThis contribution analyses the tension betweenimitatioandrenovatioin Christine de Pizan’sCent Ballades d’amant et de dame(1409–1410). It aims to show that Pizan intertwines traditional courtly discourse with fragments of Jean de Meun’s and Ovid’s writings, in order to denounce the courtly topos of worship of the lady as a manipulative strategy of seduction. In this way, she emphasizes the misogynistic conditions of the sublimated muteness and passivity of women in courtly discourse and engages in meta-reflections on her own role as a writer in the cultural context of theQuerelle des femmesand on the historical decline of France during the reign of Charles VI.

Discurso cortesano, afectos y fortuna en sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Sobre el romance 36, “Salud y gracia. Sepades”:Courtly Discourse, Affects, and Fortune in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. On Ballad 36, “Salud y gracia. Sepades”

Abstract This work analyzes the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in the light of court discourse, considering the contributions of Norbert Elias, Barbara Rosenwein, Amedeo Quondam, and Fernando Rodríguez de la Flor, among others. Courtly behaviors, gender, affects, and fortune intersect in romance 36, “Salud y gracia. Sepades”. In this text, as in other poems of her production, the Mexican author is inscribed in a courtly tradition and, at the same time, in an anti-courtly one, by identifying herself with courtly regulations, but, also distancing herself from them. This tension reflects the adoption of metropolitan literature, where both modalities coexist, but also reveals its particular place of enunciation, on the margins of the Spanish empire. The poem goes over the stereotypes regarding female representation through three courtly figurations: the ladies, the Fortune, and the enunciator herself.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ЛІНГВАЛЬНОЇ МАНІПУЛЯЦІЇ У СУДОВОМУ ДИСКУРСІ

The article looks into the problem of manipulative impact verbal realization in trial discourse. Trial discourse, which is formed and functions in a courtroom, is a part of legal discourse which embodies a trial. Trial discourse is a type of institutional communication and the sphere of its forming and functioning is a state agency (court) which administers justice. Social characteristics of discourse manifest themselves in those discourse types which are made and maintained by different social institutions. Speaking about important social consequences of court discourse we mean legal dispute resolution and a change of legal situation. That is the main function of trial discourse. Trial discourse is a general notion which comprises a lot of discourse types, and prosecutor and defense lawyer discourses are among the main types of it. Besides institutionality, which is specified by status and role relationships, the above mentioned discourse types are characterized by emotiveness, logical accomplishment, termhood and persuasiveness. The main aim of advocate discourse is their client defense that is why their discourse is more emotional as they try to gain the initiative and resort to the tactic of attack which is realized via irony, sarcasm, mockery, hints, suggestion. Taking into consideration all these facts we must admit that defense lawyer discourse is more manipulative than prosecutor one. This manipulative discourse is actualized by a great number of verbal means, in other words, by linguistic manipulation. The commonest verbal ways of realizing such manipulative impact on listeners’ consciousness are reiteration, rhetorical questions, language games, stereotypes, metaphor and grammar inversion.

Проблеми аксіології сучасного судового дискурсу

The article examines the peculiarities of modern court discourse. The most general concept for communication processes in the legal sphere is the concept of legal discourse. It was determined that court discourse is a verbal and symbolic expression of the process of communication during the court process, which is considered in a socio-historical, national-cultural, specific situational context, taking into account the characteristics and intentions of the communicators. It is emphasized that the main text of the document from a formal point of view is divided into three structural elements: introduction, main part, conclusion. The analysis of court decisions most often confirms the following information: violations of laws, offenses, crimes, statements that qualify the character and personal qualities of the plaintiff from a negative point of view. The issue of the structure of court decisions is revealed. The discursive approach to the analysis of the texts of court decisions allowed us to consider, first of all, situations of language-legal conflict in terms of all extralingual factors. In order to prevent or eliminate terminological and stylistic errors, to develop language recommendations for the correct use of legal terms.

Disability and Sexual Assault in Public(s): Performance/Nebula

Abstract: This montage essay investigates elliptical fractured storytelling modes around disabled embodiment, a court case of sexual assault, and the social media aftermath. It tracks how knowledge of perceived sexual vulnerability folds into one's bodymindspirit, and how pain runs through and shifts in these multiple foldings. The essay's earthy, plate-moving tectonics build an autoethnographic star-reaching galaxy that incorporates various modes of storytelling, including social media, poetry, movement, and court discourse. This storytelling montage is hesitant, and creates temporal folds that allow an "I" to slip away into sheltering silences.

GENDER IDENTITY IN MIKE ROSS’S TRIAL IN THE AMERICAN TV SERIES THE SUITS

Existing literature has provided a firm dichotomy between language differentials between the male and female gender. Regardless of different contexts and discourse types, these language differences tend to persist. In courtroom discourse, the linguistic constructions of female legal practitioners are loosely regarded as ‘powerless language’ characterized with polite constructions, hesitations, and hedges which is in firm contrast with their male counterparts who tend to be more definite in their linguistic constructions. The present study tends to examine how performed court discourse challenges this narrative. Using selected courtroom scenes of Mike Ross trial in the American TV show the suits, the study notes that while female legal practitioners use these ‘powerless’ linguistic patterns in the court interaction not as a demonstration of inferior or subordinate status to their male counterparts but dexterously deployed to achieve intended outcomes.

APPEAL TO EMOTIONS AS A WAY OF INFLUENCING IN COURT (LINGUISTIC ASPECT)

Appealing to emotions from the point of its discursive influence on recipients is researched in the paper. The relevance of the article is due to the dearth of research and lack in-depth analysis done on the subject in the context of importance of influencing in court.
 In this article, the author in detail sets out the differences between such notions as emotions and feelings. The views of leading scientists dealing with the phenomena are carefully analysed. Considerable attention is given to the applied nature of the research.
 The primary purpose of this piece of research is to investigate appeal to emotions in Anglophone court discourse from the point of its influence on litigants. The following objectives have been set: to clarify the terminological apparatus involved in the article; to find out the way of influencing emotions on litigants; to establish the language means expressing stratagemеs of appeal to emotions in Anglophone court discourse.
 Mention should be made of the following methods that were used here to achieve the aim: linguistic observation and analysis, as well as cognitive method, critical discourse analysis method, pragmatic analysis method.
 It has been proven that the advocate can generate a new emotional perception of the circumstances of the lawsuit, focusing the decision-maker's attention on certain points of the known information or throwing in a new piece of information, which in turn can change the mind of the judge and the jury. With this point in mind, the prosecution also appeals to emotion, albeit as an ability that awakens ethical/moral intelligence. In terms of linguistic representation, the appeal to emotion is realised through the discursive activation of the thematic sphere «emotional state». It has been established that the ultimate goal of an advocate is to provoke a certain emotional response that causes the recipient to have certain feelings. Specific thematic groups with a common seme "intuitive perception", "sensory perception", which realise the appeal to feelings have been identified.

A Transitivity Analysis of the Courtroom Discourse: A Case Study of Jodi Arias Trial

Court discourse is a typical institutional discourse, recently arousing scholars’ interest. Systemic-functional approach provides an important perspective to investigate the court discourse, among which transitivity that involves the construal of experiential meaning is a significant tool in the analysis. However, it is still unknown how experiential meanings are construed through different process types in American courtroom discourse. Therefore, this paper will take the case of Jodi Arias’ murder as an example and investigate the courtroom discourse from the perspective of transitivity. In this study, two research questions will be focused on: (1) What is the distribution of six transitivity processes in the courtroom of Jodi Arias’ murder case? (2) What are the functions of six processes for each courtroom participant in the courtroom of Jodi Arias’ murder case? After the detailed analysis, two conclusions are reached: (1) The paper finds that the major processes in the courtroom is the material, mental, relational, and verbal process. The behavioural process and the existential process is least or none in the courtroom discourse. (2) Second, the processes have their own functions in the courtroom discourse. The findings can help improve people’s understanding of American courtroom discourse and enhance American courtroom communication.

AXIOLOGEMES IN DEFENSE VS PROSECUTION ENGLISH COURT DISCOURSE

The notion of axiological dimension of texts of English court discourse is researched in the paper. The interdisciplinarity of scientific knowledge has expanded the problem field of the humanities themselves and has led to the need for a new philosophical approach to Language. Therefore, the mutual influence of philosophical disciplines and linguistic disciplines in contemporary humanities discourse is justified in this situation. The central concept of axiology is the concept of value, interpreted from the perspective of psychology, sociology, logic, structuralism, phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, and theology. The interpretation of the concept, the attitude to value as a subjective or objective phenomenon, brings together and at the same time alienates the representatives of different sciences. The author deals separately with axiologemes in the discourse of the defense and prosecution and their role in the organisation of the semantic space of the English court discourse. Anti-axiologemes in the discourse of the defense and in the discourse of the prosecution have been identified. The relevance of the article is due to the dearth of research and lack in-depth analysis done on the subject in the context of constant confrontation in the modern information space. Confrontation can be observed at all levels and in all spheres of human life, including judicial activities. The research is carried out at the intersection of several scientific and linguistic paradigms: communicative, cognitive, pragmatic and linguocultural. The logic of the development of these directions of modern linguistic science determined the novelty of this study. In this article, the author in detail describes the process of formation of axiological science. The views of leading scientists dealing with axiology are carefully analysed. The main stages of axiological knowledge development are defined. Considerable attention is given to the applied nature of axiological research. The following goals have been set: to grasp the way of formation of modern axiology, to identify axiologemes and anti-axiologemes that are characteristic of the English court discourse; to characterise their influence on the organisation of the semantic space of texts of court discourse. The analysis of the factual material regarding axiologemes and antiaxiologemes of the English court discourse has resulted in identifying their role in the organisation of the semantic space of the court discourse. Mention should be made of the following methods that were used here to achieve the aim: linguistic observation and analysis, as well as cognitive method, critical discourse analysis method, pragmatic analysis method. Thus, axiologemes in English court discourse are based on fundamental American values. They are represented by such thematic groups as �The value of human life�, �Civic virtues�, �American dream�, �Equality of all before Law� and �The rule of Law�. As well as legal axiologemes: �Proving beyond a reasonable doubt�, �Difficult life situation�, �Tragedy�. Anti-axiologemes in English court discourse are represented by the following thematic groups: �Murder�, �Vicious lifestyle�, �Double life�, �Interest in serial killers�, and �Addictions�. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility to use its provisions and conclusions, factual material in the study of communicativistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, in the practice of translation, linguistics and area studies, in the course of legal writing, oratory art. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the fact that a comparative review of axiologemes and anti-axiologemes used in the discourse of the prosecution and in the discourse of the defense has beenf first introduced.

Sociolinguistic, interpreting and political dimensions of English-language court discourse of 21ST century

Sociolinguistic, interpreting and political dimensions of English-language court discourse of 21ST century

INFLICTIVE PERSONALITY AND INFLICTIVE NARRATIVE IN COURT DISCOURSE

The article examines the communicative modes of English court discourse. The author analyses the inflictive subtype of the narrative communicative mode. The organization of the inflictive narrative and the linguistic means that create it are singled out.

A Study on Vagueness Used by the Defendant in Courtroom Discourse from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory

Court discourse is a typical legal language, recently arousing scholars’ interest. In the courtroom discourse, many language strategies would be applied in this special setting out of various purposes and vagueness is one of them. With the transcripts from the Jodi Arias’ murder case as the database, this paper investigates vagueness in the American courtroom from the perspective of adaptation theory, paying specific attention to the defendant. Two conclusions are reached: (1) the defendant uses vagueness commonly to adapt to the mental world, the social world and the physical world. As to the mental world, it can be divided into speaker-directed adaptation and hearer-directed adaptation. As to the social world, the study analyzes how the defendant adapts to the legal obligation. Defendant also adapts to the physical world in courtroom settings. (2) the study finds four pragmatic functions of vagueness used by the defendant in the courtroom discourse, they are 1) increasing the credibility of utterance; 2) avoiding absolute utterance; 3) providing appropriate information; 4) Being polite.

Особенности прямого коммуникативного воздействия адвоката и прокурора на жюри присяжных во время судебного заседания (на материале английских кинофильмов)

The paper aims to prove that during a trial, a defence attorney and a prosecutor use the same communicative techniques to influence the jurors. The author describes the basic characteristics of the court discourse and identifies specificity of a lawyer’s communicative behaviour during proceedings. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the researcher for the first time analyses opening and concluding speeches of a defence attorney and a prosecutor by the material of the English-language feature films. The research findings are as follows: the author proves that at different levels of communication, a lawyer, exerting verbal influence on the jurors, uses different speech techniques that perform the suggestive function and allow bypassing the restrictions conditioned by specificity of the court discourse.

A MULTIMETHOD APPROACH TO FRAMING DISPUTES: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE ON TRIAL IN OBERGEFELL V. HODGES*

Social movements scholars have widely used the framing perspective to analyze meaning-making related to social movements and contentious politics. Qualitative methods have helped to illuminate how activists frame social issues to combine meanings in strategic ways. By contrast, linear statistical modeling is ill-suited to analyze the interdependent and circuitous aspects of collective action frames. This study offers a multimethod approach that uses an abductive framework to combine techniques from computational text analysis and network modeling along with interpretive coding. I demonstrate this approach in the context of framing disputes through legal mobilization over the same-sex marriage in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. By examining Court discourse and amicus briefs, I show the coordination of similarities and distinctions among opposing social movement groups and elite actors. Future research can expand this method for both case studies and comparative analyses of movements.

ПЕРЦЕПТИВНІ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ ПРОСОДІЇ МОДАЛЬНОСТІ ПЕРЕКОНАННЯ В СУДОВОМУ ДИСКУРСІ

In spite the fact that scientific researches reflect the interpretation of the modality problem by modern linguists, there can hardly be found the works devoted to the prosody aspects of modality in court discourse. The aim of the experimental analysis is a complex examination of functional, semantic and pragmatic characters of convincing attitudinal semantics in prosecutor’s speech in two languages: English and Ukrainian. The results of the research demonstrate that the attitude of convincing the listeners in court depends on extra linguistic factors (situation as well as social and status relations), structural, semantic and pragmatic peculiarities of prosecutor’s speech, on the one hand, and individual characteristics of the prosecutor’s communication, on the other. Conviction prosody in a prosecutor’s speech is the most important means that actualizes the stereotypic rules of orator’s phonetic behavior aimed at influencing the audience and combines general and creative aspects. In the speech under consideration the intellectual expressiveness is the leading character (arguments and logics). The character of prosody components interaction when exercising the attitude of conviction is similar in both languages, but the role of either component in prosodic structure differs. Thus, the rhythmic structure of English, importance of temporal parameter in the word-stress, falling character of syllabic melody (in contrast to Ukrainian), fixed position of word-stress in English and free position in Ukrainian lead to peculiarities of English and Ukrainian prosody in communication. Differences in linguistic systems of the two languages: a definite grammar structure, vocabulary peculiarities, phonological system, condition prosodic features characteristic to either of the two languages.

Presuppositions as discourse strategies in court examinations

Abstract Based on the literature review of previous studies in court interaction, this paper tries to confine its discussion into a relatively detailed topic— presuppositions—in both direct examination and cross-examination. The primary aim is to examine the interaction between illocutionary acts, meaning and intentions in court discourse, which is helpful to understand the interaction between different discourse community in judicial system, while the ultimate goal is to investigate the balance between narrative and persuasion achieved by patterns of presuppositions, which are initiated by court questioners: prosecutors and lawyers. This paper finds in direct examination, presuppositions make evidence more admissible, witness more credible and therefore narrative more coherent, believable; in cross-examination, presuppositions are mainly used to challenge the credibility of the hostile witness and therefore deconstruct the narrative of the opposite lawyer. A presupposition is a method of verifying or challenging facts and credibility.