A Study Of Structural Patterns And Causes Of Conflict Talks In Chinese Criminal Trials

As an interdisciplinary research area,courtroom discourse has been attracting much attention in recent years,because it is glutted with confrontation between participants during the trials.It is a pity that the research on conflict talk has been sparse up to today.Therefore,we tried to probe into conflict talk in Chinese criminal trials from its structural patterns,degree and causes.To reveal its structural patterns,we disintegrated the conflict talk under the framework of three moves;to unfold its conflictive degree,we built the Conflictive Continuum based on Cooperative Continuum and to uncover the causes,we resorted to the Goal-driven P rinciple to carry out the study.We try to address the following questions:(1)What is the structural patterns of conflict talk in Chinese criminal discourse?(2)How is the conflict degree between the participants?(3)How shall we explain the causes for its structural patterns and conflict degree?Satisfactory answers to the first two questions entail an adequate description of conflict talk in courtroom discourse while the last one calls for an elaborate explanation of conflict talk.To work out the answers to above questions,we adopted a data-based qualitative method to dig into the conflict talk between the judge and the defendant party,the public prosecutor and the defendant party.It was found that,the structural patterns of conflict talk between the judge and the defendant party,the public prosecutor and the defendant party in Chinese criminal discourse are:in initiating move,it is mainly questioning-statement,statement-interruption/neglect;in conflicting move,it covers denial/evasion,reminding/restating the rules,unilateral rebuttal,unilateral blame and confrontational dispute;in closing move,there are five types,that is shelving/neglect,third party intervention,mandatory withdraw,non-submissive compliance and submission.In terms of conflict degree,through the analysis under Conflictive Continuum,we found that the conflict degree between the judge and the defendant party,the public prosecutor and the defendant party falls to the low degree and middle degree.High degree conflict talk seldom appeared.By revealing the cause of conflict talk under the Goal-driven Principle,we concluded nonobservance of goal maxims affected the occurrence of conflict talk,while goal relations impacted the degree of conflict.Specifically speaking,the conflict degree in goal divergent relation is the highest,in goal neutral relation the second and in goal convergent the lowest.This study has important implications for future studies on courtroom conflict talk.Theoretically,it is helpful to understand the essence of conflict talk in depth,which can provide reference to related researches.Practically,since it reflects the current situation of China's criminal trials to a certain extent,this research not only helps the trial participants to mirror their own behaviors but also contributes to saving judicial resources and improve trial efficiency.More significantly,it will promote fairness and justice and is of great importance to the construction of a harmonious society.