A Study On Legal Reasoning In Chinese Judgments

The present study sets out to explore the construction of legal reasoning in Chinese judgments from the perspective of grammatical metaphor proposed by M.A.K. Halliay. Following the fundamental belief of functional grammar that "the expression is the meaning", the author holds that the wording in Chinese judgments not only delivers information, but also impacts on the judges' construction of legal reasoning.Based on Halliday's notion and classification of grammatical metaphor, the present study first identifies different types of grammatical metaphor employed in Chinese judgments, and then works out their respective frequencies of occurrence. Findings show that grammatical metaphor is a common linguistic phenomenon in Chinese judgments, and that there is a tendency toward "thingness" concerning the using of grammatical metaphor in judgments.Then the study attempts to reveal the functions of grammatical metaphor in legal reasoning by interpreting the three metafunctional effects of grammatical metaphor, namely, its ideational, interpersonal and textual effects. Analysis shows that the employment of grammatical metaphor in judgments can bring out the linguistic effects of strengthening objectiveness, authoritativeness and logicality of legal reasoning.It is hoped that by revealing the linguistic force behind grammatical metaphor, this study will throw light on how, from a linguistic perspective, legal reasoning can be constructed and presented in an objective, authoritative and logical manner by using grammatical metaphor in judgment-writing,...