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Chapter 9 Multimodal discursive authority of the judge: Analyzing the judge’s interactions with courtroom participants in Chinese criminal trials

  • Chuanyou Yuan and Huishu Cao
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More than (Just) Words
This chapter is in the book More than (Just) Words

Abstract

A notable distinction between the civil law system, as exemplified by China, and the common law system, lies in the roles adopted by judges in the interaction during court proceedings. In Chinese criminal trials, the interaction showcases the discursive authority wielded by judges. Based on a corpus of three high-profile criminal trials and drawing on the NEGOTIATION system and the paralanguage system of Systemic Functional Linguistics, this chapter investigates the multimodal representation of the judges’ discursive authority in the negotiation of their role at five stages of Chinese criminal court proceedings. It reveals that the judges’ discursive authority is constructed through the strategic employment of both verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources within and beyond the human body. These negotiation resources include the deployment of EXCHANGE STRUCTURE, SPEECH FUNCTION, and MOOD TYPE in both the procedural and substantive negotiation with trial participants. Verbal language converges with paralanguage to solidify the judges’ discursive authority, further complemented by the deliberate organization of the courtroom’s physical layout. Through a systematic examination of the judges’ verbal, visual, and auditory semiotic resources, this research provides valuable insights into the complex and dynamic nature of courtroom interaction, shedding light on the semiotic resources involved in establishing and negotiating judges’ authority.

Abstract

A notable distinction between the civil law system, as exemplified by China, and the common law system, lies in the roles adopted by judges in the interaction during court proceedings. In Chinese criminal trials, the interaction showcases the discursive authority wielded by judges. Based on a corpus of three high-profile criminal trials and drawing on the NEGOTIATION system and the paralanguage system of Systemic Functional Linguistics, this chapter investigates the multimodal representation of the judges’ discursive authority in the negotiation of their role at five stages of Chinese criminal court proceedings. It reveals that the judges’ discursive authority is constructed through the strategic employment of both verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources within and beyond the human body. These negotiation resources include the deployment of EXCHANGE STRUCTURE, SPEECH FUNCTION, and MOOD TYPE in both the procedural and substantive negotiation with trial participants. Verbal language converges with paralanguage to solidify the judges’ discursive authority, further complemented by the deliberate organization of the courtroom’s physical layout. Through a systematic examination of the judges’ verbal, visual, and auditory semiotic resources, this research provides valuable insights into the complex and dynamic nature of courtroom interaction, shedding light on the semiotic resources involved in establishing and negotiating judges’ authority.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments VII
  3. Contents IX
  4. Foreword XIII
  5. Introduction: More than (just) words 1
  6. Part I: (Just) words
  7. Legal perspectives
  8. Chapter 1 Metalanguage in the penalty phase of a capital trial: A study of two monologic genres 27
  9. Chapter 2 Political discrimination or reasonable conduct? Motive-implicative discourse moves in a civil trial’s closing arguments 49
  10. Chapter 3 Legal-lay interaction and recontextualization in Swedish criminal proceedings 73
  11. Non-legal perspectives
  12. Chapter 4 . . .and I’m telling you honestly, I don’t measure: Emotive reframing and evasiveness in expert testimony 99
  13. Chapter 5 Navigating the linguistic complexity of cross-examination: The role of the witness intermediary for an autistic defendant 127
  14. Chapter 6 Between semantics and pragmatics: Witnesses’ credibility and the linguistic expression of the source of information in Italian criminal trials 149
  15. Chapter 7 Identity construction in complainants’ narratives in the investigative public hearings on the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory administration 185
  16. Part II: More than (just) words
  17. Speech and gesture
  18. Chapter 8 I wanna be somebody: Enacted reported thought in an actual jury deliberation 213
  19. Chapter 9 Multimodal discursive authority of the judge: Analyzing the judge’s interactions with courtroom participants in Chinese criminal trials 231
  20. Image and architecture
  21. Chapter 10 Allegories of justice in contemporary France: In search of a new paradigm 267
  22. Chapter 11 Criminal law, court architecture, and the space of justice: Stakeholder perceptions of ‘special’ courts used in child sexual abuse trials in India 293
  23. Index 319
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111431789-010

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments VII
  3. Contents IX
  4. Foreword XIII
  5. Introduction: More than (just) words 1
  6. Part I: (Just) words
  7. Legal perspectives
  8. Chapter 1 Metalanguage in the penalty phase of a capital trial: A study of two monologic genres 27
  9. Chapter 2 Political discrimination or reasonable conduct? Motive-implicative discourse moves in a civil trial’s closing arguments 49
  10. Chapter 3 Legal-lay interaction and recontextualization in Swedish criminal proceedings 73
  11. Non-legal perspectives
  12. Chapter 4 . . .and I’m telling you honestly, I don’t measure: Emotive reframing and evasiveness in expert testimony 99
  13. Chapter 5 Navigating the linguistic complexity of cross-examination: The role of the witness intermediary for an autistic defendant 127
  14. Chapter 6 Between semantics and pragmatics: Witnesses’ credibility and the linguistic expression of the source of information in Italian criminal trials 149
  15. Chapter 7 Identity construction in complainants’ narratives in the investigative public hearings on the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory administration 185
  16. Part II: More than (just) words
  17. Speech and gesture
  18. Chapter 8 I wanna be somebody: Enacted reported thought in an actual jury deliberation 213
  19. Chapter 9 Multimodal discursive authority of the judge: Analyzing the judge’s interactions with courtroom participants in Chinese criminal trials 231
  20. Image and architecture
  21. Chapter 10 Allegories of justice in contemporary France: In search of a new paradigm 267
  22. Chapter 11 Criminal law, court architecture, and the space of justice: Stakeholder perceptions of ‘special’ courts used in child sexual abuse trials in India 293
  23. Index 319
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