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Chapter 7. The nature of power and control in the interrogative patterns of selected Nigerian courtroom discourse

  • Oluwasola A. Aina , Anthony Elisha Anowu and Tunde Olusola Opeibi
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Legal Pragmatics
This chapter is in the book Legal Pragmatics

Abstract

This study examines power relations in two different but interrelated courtroom trials within the Nigerian socio-judicial space. One reports barrister-questioning strategies in the course of legal proceedings concerning a land dispute, and the other focuses on two election petition tribunal trials involving various barrister-witness dialogues. This article highlights the way language is used as a symbol of power in the two courtroom dialogues. Moreover, it considers questioning procedures in conjunction with the forms of witnesses’ answers and how these reproduce the nature of power and control in this institutional setting. Drawing on pragmatics and insights from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), we show that courtroom conventions as well as social circumstances impose some constraints on what is said and how it is said. Some insights might, thus, be gained as to the extent in which social and other extra-judicial circumstances may impact the strategy that witnesses adopt to tell their stories during interrogation.

The findings support the interplay between socio-[cultural] circumstances and legal considerations in some typical courtroom trials in Nigeria. It confirms the universality of legal proceedings, especially as regards some similarity in the various interrogative patterns that counsel deploy in courtroom encounters and how these show the asymmetric nature of legal discourse and the effect on text and talk of the participants.

Abstract

This study examines power relations in two different but interrelated courtroom trials within the Nigerian socio-judicial space. One reports barrister-questioning strategies in the course of legal proceedings concerning a land dispute, and the other focuses on two election petition tribunal trials involving various barrister-witness dialogues. This article highlights the way language is used as a symbol of power in the two courtroom dialogues. Moreover, it considers questioning procedures in conjunction with the forms of witnesses’ answers and how these reproduce the nature of power and control in this institutional setting. Drawing on pragmatics and insights from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), we show that courtroom conventions as well as social circumstances impose some constraints on what is said and how it is said. Some insights might, thus, be gained as to the extent in which social and other extra-judicial circumstances may impact the strategy that witnesses adopt to tell their stories during interrogation.

The findings support the interplay between socio-[cultural] circumstances and legal considerations in some typical courtroom trials in Nigeria. It confirms the universality of legal proceedings, especially as regards some similarity in the various interrogative patterns that counsel deploy in courtroom encounters and how these show the asymmetric nature of legal discourse and the effect on text and talk of the participants.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part 1. Historical pragmatics
  5. Chapter 1. Pleading for life 21
  6. Chapter 2. “How came you not to cry out?” 41
  7. Chapter 3. Implicatures in Early Modern English courtroom records 65
  8. Chapter 4. Literal interpretation and political expediency 81
  9. Part 2. Pragmatics of legal writing and documents
  10. Chapter 5. Making legal language clear to legal laypersons 101
  11. Chapter 6. Interpreting or in legal texts 117
  12. Part 3. Discourse in the courtroom and in police investigation
  13. Chapter 7. The nature of power and control in the interrogative patterns of selected Nigerian courtroom discourse 133
  14. Chapter 8. The language of Egyptian interrogations 157
  15. Chapter 9. Achieving influence through negotiation 181
  16. Chapter 10. “I really don’t know because I’m stupid” 203
  17. Part 4. Legal discourse and multilingualism
  18. Chapter 11. On the balance between invariance and context-dependence 231
  19. Chapter 12. Contextuality of interpretation in non-monolingual jurisdictions 257
  20. Legal pragmatics - subject index proposal 277
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.288.07ain

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part 1. Historical pragmatics
  5. Chapter 1. Pleading for life 21
  6. Chapter 2. “How came you not to cry out?” 41
  7. Chapter 3. Implicatures in Early Modern English courtroom records 65
  8. Chapter 4. Literal interpretation and political expediency 81
  9. Part 2. Pragmatics of legal writing and documents
  10. Chapter 5. Making legal language clear to legal laypersons 101
  11. Chapter 6. Interpreting or in legal texts 117
  12. Part 3. Discourse in the courtroom and in police investigation
  13. Chapter 7. The nature of power and control in the interrogative patterns of selected Nigerian courtroom discourse 133
  14. Chapter 8. The language of Egyptian interrogations 157
  15. Chapter 9. Achieving influence through negotiation 181
  16. Chapter 10. “I really don’t know because I’m stupid” 203
  17. Part 4. Legal discourse and multilingualism
  18. Chapter 11. On the balance between invariance and context-dependence 231
  19. Chapter 12. Contextuality of interpretation in non-monolingual jurisdictions 257
  20. Legal pragmatics - subject index proposal 277
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