On The Judge's Identity Construction Of Chinese Courtroom Discourse Under The Goal-driven Principle

Courtroom trial discourse is a typical institutional discourse which is goal-oriented and task-oriented.In courtroom trials,judges are supposed to play the role of referee,but besides this identity,judges will also construct other identities in the actual dynamic process of trial.Under the Goal-driven Principle proposed by Liao Meizhen and from the perspective of pragmatics,this paper aims to analyze how judges construct different kinds of identities through linguistic discourse in the interaction process of court trials,thus revealing the outlook of present court trials in China.Moreover,the author generates some implications on the trial activities,and brings forth suggestions related to them.In this paper,based on the data transcribed from two civil cases and criminal cases,the author does a descriptive and analytical,as well as qualitative and quantitative analysis.In the first chapter,an introduction about the research background,research significance,and research methods is carried out respectively.The second chapter is about literature review.Firstly,the author reviews domestic and foreign researches on courtroom discourse,and then introduces the definition of identity,as well as the theoretical researches and applied researches on identity construction.Finally,the focus is on identity construction researches in courtroom discourse.In the third chapter,the author sketches the theoretical framework based on the Goal-driven Principle,turn-taking system and interruption.In the fourth chapter,the author firstly analyzes the classification of judge's identity by a descriptive method.The author finds that the identity of judge can be classified into four types in terms of the judges' discourse goals,which are organizer,investigator,dominator and referee.Then,the author also divides the illocutionary acts of judge into four categories in terms of their aims and functions.It is through these speech acts that judges construct different identities.At the same time,the author finds that the typical feature of institutional discourse is the asymmetry of power relations among various participants.That is to say,in courtroom discourse,discourse turns are strictly controlled by the judge,so who says first,what to say and when to say should follow rigid procedural requirements.Judges can start a topic at any time,or interrupt the current speaker,but other participants must wait until the judge allocates them a speaking turn.Therefore,by doing a qualitative and quantitative analysis on the interruption phenomenon in the courtroom discourse,the author explores how judges use interruption as a discourse strategy to construct identities,especially the identity of dominator.In the last chapter of this study,based on the findings mentioned above,the author generates two implications towards the current courtroom trials.On the one hand,the current litigation trial pattern in China has obvious characteristics of the adversary system,especially in criminal trials.Under such a trial pattern,it can be seen that both prosecutors and defendants have been given more chances to speak,and the judge mainly acts as a referee by hearing their opinions in the entire trial process,thus getting to know the facts of the case and making a fair judgment.On the other hand,due to the fact that some parties' ability to provide evidence is limited or that litigants are poorly aware of the importance of evidence,so in the court trials,especially in civil trials,judges will participate in the substantial investigation when necessary.Therefore,our country's courtroom trial pattern is also characterized by inquisitorial system,namely,a combination of both two kinds of trail system.Moreover,the author provides two suggested strategies for the sake of improving the effectiveness of the courtroom trials.In conclusion,this study not only enriches the identity construction in the field of courtroom discourse,but also provides some suggestions for judges on languages they use to conduct the trail,thus having practical and theoretical significance.Although this paper has made certain improvements to both forensic linguistics and the identity construction,it has limitations,thus bringing forth the suggestions for future research.