Language in the Legal Process

Linguists and lawyers from a range of countries and legal systems explore the language of the law and its participants, beginning with the role of the forensic linguist in legal proceedings, either as expert witness or in legal language reform. Subsequent chapters analyze different aspects of language and interaction in the chain of events from a police emergency call through the police interview context and into the courtroom, as well as appeal court and alternative routes to justice. A broad-based, coherent introduction to the discourse of language and law.

List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: Language in the Legal Process; J.Cotterill PART I: THE LINGUIST IN THE LEGAL PROCESS To Testify or Not to Testify?; R.W.Shuy Whose Voice Is It? Invented and Concealed Dialogue in Written Records of Verbal Evidence Produced by the Police; M.Coulthard Textual Barriers to United States Immigration; G.Stygall The Language and Law of Product Warnings; P.M.Tiersma PART II: THE LANGUAGE OF THE POLICE AND THE POLICE INTERVIEW 'I Just Need to Ask Somebody Some Questions': Sensitivities in Domestic Dispute Calls; K.Tracy & R.R.Agne So...? Pragmatic Implications of So-Prefaced Questions in Formal Police Interviews; A.Johnson 'Three's a Crowd': Shifts in Dynamics in the Interpreted Interview; S.Russell The Miranda Warnings and Linguistic Coercion: The Role of Footing in the Interrogation of a Limited-English Speaking Murder Suspect; S.Berk-Seligson PART III: THE LANGUAGE OF THE COURTROOM I: LAWYERS AND WITNESSES 'Just One More Time...': Change and Continuity in Courtroom Narratives in the Trials of OJ Simpson; J.Cotterill 'Evidence Given in Unequivocal Terms': Gaining Consent of Aboriginal Young People in Court; D.Eades The Clinton Scandal: Some Legal Lessons from Linguistics; L.M.Solan Understanding the Other: A Case of Mis-Interpreting Culture-Specific Utterances at Alternative Dispute Resolution; R.H.Moeketsi PATY IV: THE LANGUAGE OF THE COURTROOM II: JUDGES AND JURIES The Meaning of 'I Go Bankrupt': An Essay in Forensic Linguistics; S.Bernstein 'If You Were Standing in Marks and Spencers': Narrativization and Comprehension in the English Summing-Up; C.Heffer Reasonable Doubt about Reasonable Doubt: Assessing Jury Instruction Adequacy in a Capital Case; B.K.Dumas Discipline and Punishment in the Discourse of Legal Decision on Rape Trials; D.de C.Figueiredo Index

ROBERT R. AGNE Department of Communications, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA STAN BERNSTEIN US Bankruptcy Judge, Eastern District, New York USA SUSAN BERK-SELIGSON Associate Professor, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh MALCOLM COULTHARD Professor of English Language and Linguistics BETHANY K. DUMAS Associate Professor of English and Chair, University of Tennessee DIANA EADES Associate Professor, Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii DÉBORA DE CARVALHO FIGUEIREDO Lecturer, Faculdades Barddal, Southern Brazil CHRIS HEFFER Lecturer in Linguistics, Nottingham Trent University ALISON JOHNSON Lecturer in Linguistics and English Literature, University of Birmingham, UK ROSEMARY H. MOEKETSI Assistant Professor, Department of African Languages, University of South Africa, Pretoria SONIA RUSSELL Former;y French-English Interpreter, Kent Police, Facilitation Support Unit, Dover and HM Customs and Excise ROGER W. SHUYDistinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, Georgetown University, USA LAWRENCE M. SOLAN Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, USA GAIL STYGALL Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Washington, USA PETER M. TIERSMA Professor of Law and Joseph Scott Fellow, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, USA KAREN TRACY Professor of Communications, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA