LANGUAGE USE IN THE JUDICIARY DURING CASE TRIALS

ABSTRACT

This study is a sociolinguistic investigation of language use in the Judiciary using case trials as a case study. The aim of this research is to highlight and analyze the various exchanges that take place between language users in courtrooms during case trials. In carrying out this research, the researcher employed the Sinclair and Coulthard model of discourse analysis and Ethnography of Communication as the theoretical frameworks of the study. The data analyzed in this study were extracts of real courtroom proceedings collected through the direct observation and tape recording methods of data collection. The findings of this research include: that lawyers, witnesses, and suspects use various act forms that enable them achieve their communication goals. This research also discovered that the various factors that are involved in speaking as postulated by Hymes (1974) also characterize the language use in the judiciary during case trials. This research concludes that language can be used to achieve various goals in different situations and occasions. Also language can be used in a unique way to achieve certain communicative goals as in the case in the language use during case trials.