Home Linguistics & Semiotics Engagement in Chinese criminal judgments
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Engagement in Chinese criminal judgments

  • Guang Shi EMAIL logo , Xi Wang and Lijun Zhou
Published/Copyright: October 20, 2022

Abstract

Based on the engagement system in Appraisal Theory and taking 100 Chinese criminal judgments as data, this paper analyzes the distribution features and interpersonal functions of engagement resources in Chinese criminal judgments. The findings are as follows. First, in Chinese criminal judgments, dialogic contractive resources outnumber dialogic expansive ones. Of the nine types of engagement resources, Deny takes the largest proportion. Entertain, Acknowledge, Pronounce, and Endorse are also favored by judges, while Counter, Endorse+Pronounce, Concede, Endorse+Acknowledge, and Distance are much less favored. Second, the dialogic space is adjusted in different parts of judgments due to different engagement strategies, narrowing down in the Head, Fact, and Reason parts, then nearly closing up in the Result part, and finally opening up in the Ending part. Third, Deny, Pronounce, Endorse+Pronounce, Endorse, and Distance are used to show that criminal judgments are just, authoritative, persuasive, and compulsory. By acknowledging the arguments and submissions that have been presented, judges are showing respect for the litigation rights of the various parties, while the featured strategies of Counter, Concede, and Entertain increase the acceptability of the judgments.


Guang Shi Nanjing Normal University 122 Ninghai Road Nanjing, Jiangsu 210097 China

References

Bhatia, V. K. 1993. Analyzing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar

Du, J. B. 2003. “On the research and development of Legal Linguistics”. Journal of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies 14(1). 14–17.Search in Google Scholar

Halliday, M. A. K. 1994. An introduction to functional grammar (2nd edition). London: Edward Arnold.Search in Google Scholar

He, J. Q. and H. Q. He. 2016. “Pragmatic interpretation of criminal judgments”. Journal of Chongqing Jiaotong University 16(1). 112–116+133.Search in Google Scholar

Hood, S. 2010. Appraising research: Evaluation in academic writing. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230274662Search in Google Scholar

Huang, P. 2010. “Interpersonal meaning of hedges in legal texts – A case study of Chinese judgments”. Academic Exchange 2. 159–161.Search in Google Scholar

Hyland, K. 2005. “Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse”. Discourse Studies 7(2). 173–192.10.1177/1461445605050365Search in Google Scholar

Iedema, R., S. Feez and P. R. R. White. 1994. Media literacy. Sydney: Disadvantaged Schools Program, NSW Department of School Education. Extract available at: https://www.grammatics.com/appraisal/media/medialit-comment.pdf.Search in Google Scholar

Jiang, T. and X. Yang. 2018. “A comparative study of authorship construction in English and Chinese academic papers on law: An engagement perspective”. Journal of Xi’an International Studies University 26(4). 8–13.Search in Google Scholar

Kurzon, D. 2001. “The politeness of judges: American and English judicial behaviour”. Journal of Pragmatics 33(1). 61–85.10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00123-XSearch in Google Scholar

Li, D. 2011. “Intertextuality of civil judgments”. Journal of Language and Literature Studies 21. 73–74.Search in Google Scholar

Li, S. F. 2008. “A study of interpersonal meaning in Chinese criminal judicial judgements”. Foreign Language Research 2. 60–64.Search in Google Scholar

Maley, Y. 1994. The language of the law. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar

Martin, J. R. 2004. “Mourning – how we get aligned”. Discourse and Society 15(2/3). 321–344.10.1177/0957926504041022Search in Google Scholar

Martin. J. R. and D. Rose. 2003. Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar

Martin, J. R. and P. R. R. White. 2005. The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230511910Search in Google Scholar

Mazzi, D. 2010. “ʻThis argument fails for two reasons
’: A linguistic analysis of judicial evaluation strategies in US Supreme Court judgments”. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 23(4). 373–385.10.1007/s11196-010-9162-0Search in Google Scholar

Miller, D. R. 2004. “
To meet our common challenge”: Engagement strategies of alignment and alienation in current US international discourse. In Gotti, M. and C. Candlin (eds.), Intercultural discourse in domain-specific English. Textus: Sense Publisher.Search in Google Scholar

Nie, Y. J. 2013. “The study of civil judgments under appraisal system: Based on the engagement as a dialogue”. Journal of Xidian University 4. 91–96.Search in Google Scholar

Pan, H. T. 2008. “On the principles of English translation of legal terms in Chinese criminal judgments”. Journal of Petroleum Educational Institute of Xinjiang 1. 98–101.Search in Google Scholar

Pan, Q. Y. 2002. Comments on legal documents. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press.Search in Google Scholar

Shi, G. 2020. “Speech reporting in Chinese criminal judgements”. Chinese Semiotic Studies 16(2). 277–296.10.1515/css-2020-0016Search in Google Scholar

Sun, Y. X. 2010. “An appraisal analysis of engagement resources of narrative public service advertisement”. Journal of Sichuan University of Science and Engineering 25(1). 129–133.Search in Google Scholar

Swain, E. 2007. Constructing an effective ‘voice’ in academic discussion writing: An appraisal theory perspective”. In McCabe, A., M. O’Donnell and R. Whittaker (eds.), Advances in language and education. London: Continuum. 166–184.Search in Google Scholar

Thompson, G. 1996. Introducing functional grammar. London: Arnold.Search in Google Scholar

Thompson, G. and Y. Ye. 1991. “Evaluation in the reporting verbs used in academic papers”. Applied Linguistics 12(4). 365–382.10.1093/applin/12.4.365Search in Google Scholar

Wang, J. 2010. A contrastive analysis of Chinese and American court judgments: From the perspective of discourse semantics. (MA Thesis, Shandong Normal University.)Search in Google Scholar

Wang, Z. H. 2012. Collection of Martin’s works.Shanghai: Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press.Search in Google Scholar

White, P. R. R. 1998. Telling media tales: The news story as rhetoric. (PhD dissertation, University of Sydney.)Search in Google Scholar

White, P. R. R. 2005. Subjectivity, evaluation and point of view in media discourse. In: Coffin, C. and K. O’Halloran (eds.), Grammar, text and context: A reader. London/New York: Arnold.Search in Google Scholar

Xin, B. 2000. Intertextuality from a critical perspective. Suzhou: Suzhou University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Yuan, C. Y. 2008. “Interpersonal meanings in police interrogations: An appraisal-engagement perspective”. Modern Foreign Languages 2. 141–149.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, D. Q. 2014. “Evaluation and voice of academic papers: An engagement perspective”. Journal of Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics 2. 97–103.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, F. L. and L. P. Zhang. 2014. “On the translation of criminal judgments from the perspective of pragmatic enrichment”. Chinese Translators Journal 35(3). 93–97.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, Q. 2019. “Comparative study on ancient judgments and modern criminal judgments in China”. Journal of Comparative Law 3. 131–141.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, Q. and M. Y. Gong. 2013. “A comparative study of modality in American and Chinese criminal judgements”. Journal of Shanxi University 1. 82–87.Search in Google Scholar

Zhu, D. H. 2011. “A corpus-based study of evaluative language patterns on argumentations by Chinese English major students from attitude and engagement perspectives”. Journal of Beijing International Studies University 190(2). 67–74.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2022-10-20
Published in Print: 2022-09-27

© 2022 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, PoznaƄ, Poland

Downloaded on 13.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/psicl-2022-0027/html
Scroll to top button