刑事法庭调查中的填表式问句初探

Form-filling Questions in Chinese Criminal Court Examinations

本文基于对真实庭审语料的会话分析 ,探讨了刑事法庭庭审调查中一种特殊的疑问表达形式———填表式问句的语法特点及其蕴含的功能意义。这种问句的结构形式是“NP+,K”(名词组 +降调 ) ,与特指问句对应 ,但其语义功能属于只问不疑。“填表式问句”并不是一种常规的问句形式 ,其询问功能取决于一定的话轮位置和序列语境 ;另一方面 ,“填表式问句”本身也反映了特定言语情境中交际双方不平等的权力关系 ,故而加强了庭审调查会话交际情境的机构性特点。

Based on a 70-minute naturally-occurring video-taped database collected in Chinese criminal court examinations, this paper examines the grammatical form and pragmatic function of form-filling questions, as well as the role of conversational sequence and communicative situation in the use of such questions. The analysis of the data follows the conversational analytical approach, according to which speakers construct utterances in such a way that their discourse functions can be recognized by the specific addressee. Recipients respond to utterances on the basis of what they interpret them as doing. Many instances are found in our data where a grammatical NP said in a falling intonation does questioning by virtue of its sequential position in the talk. The recipients in the interaction had no trouble interpreting the declarative as questions, though there is neither interrogative form nor interrogative intonation. This study suggests that, on the one hand, in certain communicative situations, the significance of sequential organization may override syntactic and intonational forms in determining utterances as doing questioning, thus providing a new perspective on our understanding of questions; and on the other hand, the situated use of form-filling questions may also reinforce the institutional character of communicative situations such as criminal court examination by reflecting the asymmetric relation between interactants.