EL4252:
Honours Year
Adversarial discourse
In a court of law, court hearings are
presided over by the judge, and there are two parties in dispute – this
could be the plaintiff (the party claiming redress or damages) against the defendant in
civil cases, or the prosecutor (generally the state) against the defendant
in criminal cases. In some hearings, there might be a jury. In
parliament, in countries where parties are strongly pitted against each other,
the speaker is the chair.
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Address direction |
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Direct
and re-direct examination Cross
and re-cross examination Judge |
Prosecution/defence
à witness Defence/prosecution
à witness Judge
à witness |
Witness
à prosecution/defence Witness
à defence/ prosecution Witnessà judge |
Address
options in courtroom discourse
Cheng & Wagner, Exploring Courtroom Discourse: The Language of Power and Control
A. Politeness in legal settings: Extract from Bill Clinton’s deposition
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/pjones/docs/clintondep031398.htm
(Mr Fisher is Paula Jones’s lawyer;
Mr Bennett is Bill Clinton’s. Q = questions [from Fisher], A = answers [from
Q. (1) Let me hand you what has been
marked Deposition Exhibit 5.
Mr Fisher:
(2) I’m afraid I only have one extra copy of this one, but if
you’ll send it back to me, you can look at that copy.
Mr Bennett: (3) Do you have a copy for the
Judge?
Mr Fisher: (4) No, but I’ll send that one down
after I ask only one or two questions. If you have an objection so that she
needs to see it, I’ll pass that down.
Mr Bennett: (5) I could make a suggestions.
If you have a series of documents you’re going to be questioning about,
out of courtesy to the other lawyers and the Court, I would be happy to take
those and reproduce them so there’s enough copies for everyone.
Mr Fisher: (6) I think there are only one or two
letters for which I only have one copy.
Judge Wright: (7) Why don’t we take
him up on his offer and make a copy for the Court and one for Mr Ruff and I’d,
I don’t know who else. Mr Bristow might like to have a copy.
Mr Bennett: (8) Could you give me, maybe
you could go on to another area or some direct questions to the president, and
give me everything that you want copied, and I’ll have several copies made.
Judge Wright: (9) Actually you can give
them to Barry Ward, if you don’t want Mr Bennett to see them until you
present them, and so you don’t mind if Barry takes them?
Mr Bennett: (10) No, Your Honour, I’m just
trying to expedite things.
Judge Wright: (11) Sure.
Mr Fisher: (12) The things that I have only one
copy of are things that were produced just in the last day or so, and with
travel arrangements here and everything, I had a hard time co-ordinating
that.
The Witness: (13) I know what this document is.
Mr Bennett: (14) Wait until he asks you a
question.
Mr Fisher: (15) At the next break I’ll do that.
Judge Wright: (16) All right.
Mr Bennett: (17) Okay, fine. Okay. What’s your
question to the president?
Mr Fisher: (18) Did you have an objection
about this particular –
Mr Bennett: (19) No, I don’t have an objection.
Q. (20) Is this a copy of a sexual
harassment policy that you signed when you were the governor of the state of
A. (21) It is. I signed it in 1987, and
I’m fairly sure that I was, we were the first or one of the very first states
to actually have a clearly defined sexual harassment policy.
Mr Fisher: (22) Objection, non-responsive
beginning with the words, ‘I’m fairly sure.’
Q. (23) Mr President, the criteria
there under Roman numeral III were actually federal guidelines that you were
adopting as the policy in the state, correct?
A. (24) Yes.
(source:
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/)
Mrs Gillian Shephard (North-West
Norfolk): (1) I thank the right honourable Gentleman for making
available to me a copy of his statement and the report at the correct
time. All honourable Members will have found it helpful to have had
individual copies of the parts of the report appropriate to their
constituencies. I also welcome the right honourable Gentleman to his new
responsibilities. I congratulate him, and I wish him well. We regret
that his post has been demoted from Cabinet rank, feeling that that
illustrates the Government’s attitude to transport. However, I am sure that the
right honourable Gentleman will perform his task well. I only hope
that his ministerial career will not be affected by the poisoned chalice that
he has been handed today. I am delighted that he has made an oral
statement. It has come at the last possible moment, but that was not of
his doing. […] I have a number of questions for the right honourable Gentleman.
Will he confirm the answer that the Minister for Transport in London gave on 27
July to my honourable Friend the Member for North Essex (Mr Jenkin) that less
money will be spent next year on road construction and maintenance than was
spent this year? If the position has altered in the light of his announcement,
can he tell us by how much and in what way? […] We welcome the setting up of
properly resourced and equipped regional traffic control centres. Given that so
many of the road schemes that the Minister has today delayed or scrapped have
been the subject of reviews because of congestion problems, how quickly does
he envisage road users experiencing real improvements on, say, the M1 and the
M6? Many will be listening to his reply as they sit in jams and I do not
think that further studies will be much comfort to them. […]
Dr Reid:
(2) I shall attempt to answer only 110 of those questions. First, I thank
the right honourable Member for South-West Norfolk (Mrs Shephard) for her congratulations and am deeply moved
by her concern about my future career prospects, but I think that I would
rather take care of them. The fact that no less a person than the Deputy Prime
Minister is in charge of the Department is a sign of the priority that we place
on transport. As for the right honourable Lady’s other questions, I shall avoid
answering those that were merely personal abuse. […] As for road
maintenance, we have restored the cuts that took place under the
Conservative Government.
Mr Bernard Jenkin (
Dr Reid: (4) The honourable Gentleman has
a cheek interrupting as he does, when the Conservative Government,
after 18 years, left us in a worse mess than any other Government have
done. I shall give one example. The right honourable Lady had the brass neck
[= over-confidence, effrontery] to criticise
us implicitly about bypasses. We have given the go-ahead for 15. The
highest number in any year during the 18 years of Conservative control of the
transport system was 16, so this year, we have almost reached the highest
figure that the Tories ever managed to achieve. Their record in their last
three years was as follows: in 1994-95, they started the sum total of three
bypasses; in 1995-96, they started one; and in 1996-97, they started one. So,
this year we are starting three times more than they did in their last three
years and they ought to consider those figures before they speak (
(source:
Yang Mei Ling 1987/88)
<S1> (1) What you say about slowdancing you know er -
<S2> (2) Ya the
girl grab me ah I don’t want ah, then Asean scholar
some more
<S3> (3) (who’s she?)
<S2> (4) Ya you
don’t know, many years our junior one. I
go there and ‘buaya’ [flirt, SCE from Malay] also you see. So wah - I tell you
really ‘shiok’ [enjoyable,
SCE from colloq. Malay] ah then=
<S1> (5) =She feels awkward also lah
<S2> (6) Yah
<S1> (7) Yah I will
<S2> (8) I feel *awkward*, you know what I
believe slowdance is or not?
<S1> (9) *You did it also what*
<S3> (10) Someone you really know well.
<S2> (11) Yah because you know what, because
I tell myself, when I slowdance ah, I can feel the
electricity you know.
<Others>
(12) [laugh]
<S1> (13) [laugh] ah so highly charged one ah [laugh]
<S2> (14) I mean - it’s suppose
to release my energy you know – ZA::H
<S1> (15) *[laugh] Wah aiyo
[excl. (mock?) surprise] -*
<Others>
(16) *[laugh]*
<S1> (17) I - I - I dare not go near you [laugh]
<Others>
(18) [laugh]
<S1> (19) Sounds like a typical haam sap lou [lecher, Cantonese] er
<Others>
(20) [laugh]
<S2> (21) Wha::t
the heck [laugh], when I say I release my energy za::h
- to you ah - then the girl will stun also say - wa:h
I enjoy it man *you know*
<Others>
(22) *[laugh]*
<S1> (23) That’s love ah? [laugh]
<S2> (24) To me y’know
*I -*
<S1> (25) *The* the worse thing is to be
stiff er ---- or too: too much hands (er) it’s even worse also -
<S2> (26) Wa:h too
much hands - you all haven’t seen some of those guys oo:h=
<S1> (27) =I’ve seen I’ve seen
<S2> (28) Oh you’ve
seen ah [laugh]