控制与抗争:法官与被告人法庭交际会话分析

Control and Counter-control:A Conversational Analysis of Judge-defendant Interaction in Court

在法庭这一个特殊的社会语境下,参与法庭言语交流的几个角色之间的权力分配是不均等的,法官的权力最高,是庭审的主持人与仲裁人,而被告人却只是受讯的一方,各种可享受的权力极为有限,所拥有的言语权也最少。对两者之间的言语交流进行会话结构、内容等分析发现,法官通过控制问话、决定庭审言语事件的进展、对答复进行最后评估等言语手段对被告人实施权力控制。但是,法官与被告人的交流并非像表面看来那么简单。对两者的言语交流进行动态分析可以看出,被告人在言语上对法官表示尊从屈服之外,还努力通过言语手段争取会话主动权以及对会话的控制。两者之间对权力与控制的争夺主要体现在被告人答话的方式与法官的发问技巧上。

For the several participants of the courtroom talk in the highly institutional social setting, powers are distributed disproportionately with the judge topping the highest position as the chair and arbiter while the defendant placed the lowest as the person to be questioned. A conversational analysis of the judge-defendant verbal exchange shows that the former exerts absolute control over the latter by means of issuing questions, dictating the tempo of the on-going communication, and the final evaluation of responses. A dynamic analysis of verbal interaction between the two roles reveals, however, that behind this taken-for-granted status quo of dominance and submission lies a picture of competition for power and control, which is contained in questioning strategies of the judge and answering skills of the defendant.