Interpreting Dynamics of Courtroom Discourse: A Linguistic and Socio-Cultural Analysis of Selected Trials at the Civil High Court of Lahore
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Date
2017
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University of Management & Technology
Abstract
This study aims at dissecting legal discourse in selected courtroom trials through an emphasis on constraints of legal jargon, as opposed to the fluidity of language use in everyday settings, and the role served by socio-culturally determined assumptions in the verbal interaction between parties with conflicting claims and interests. The purpose is to see how the law's understanding of right and wrong is guided not so much by the intrinsic value of facts or events as by complexities involved in the coding and decoding of verbal signifying practices like the plurality of denotations and connotations, constructs of power and powerlessness subjects in society live by, etc. The works of Norman Fairclough, Michel Foucault, and those of Donald Black and William M. O'Barr provide the theoretical groundwork to this study. Data is gathered through participant observation, note taking and written notes of licensed records of court proceedings from the various hearings of four criminal trials at Civil High Court, Lahore. Qualitative research methodology is used for analyzing sub-events of discourse like the opening statements, witness questions, closing statements and sentencing, in order to note the strategies involved in the pursuit of the participants' verbal goals. This study provides insights on the language used in courtroom and how it affects a jury in making a decision regarding a criminal case. The study has incorporated a deep appreciation of how Jean-Francois Lyotard's famous designation of meaning-making processes as “language games” can be used for a specially critical perspective on verbal courtroom discourse since the latter represents a scenario in which a person's fate / life quite literally depends on the effectiveness of lingual choices of defendants, witnesses, advocates and prosecutors.
Description
Muhammad Furqan Tanvir
Keywords
Courtroom dynamics, legal discourse, legal language,legal jargon, silence, narration, power, gender perspective, M.Phil