Making a case : narrative and paradigmatic modes in the legal-lay discourse of English jury trial
This thesis is a study of the language used by legal professionals before English juries. it investigates a distinction between two principal cultural-cognitive modes and examines their effect on forensic discourse. The 'paradigmatic' mode is evident in the discourse of professional legal argumentation, while the 'narrative' mode typifies the sociolinguistic praxis of 'lay' language users. The thesis argues that 'legal-lay' discourse is characterised by a dialectical relationship resulting from the attempt by barristers and judges to satisfy both the paradigmatic demands of the law and the lay jury's narrative constructions of social experience. Thus legal professionals invoke a range of discoursal. strategies oriented to both modes. These strategies are explored in a set of corpora of legal-lay genres, including 100 witness examinations and judicial summings-up to the jury. The barrister's discourse is shown to draw heavily on the narrative mode despite paradigmatic legal constraints on witness examination. It is also claimed that accommodation to the narrative mode in the judge's legal directions might assist jury comprehension, but that such 'narrativisation' may increase the risk of judicial bias. The
Heffer, Chris
Making a case : narrative and paradigmatic modes in the legal-lay discourse of English jury trial. This thesis is a study of the language used by legal professionals before English juries. it investigates a distinction between two principal cultural-cognitive modes and examines their effect on forensic discourse. The 'paradigmatic' mode is evident in the discourse of professional legal argumentation, while the 'narrative' mode typifies the sociolinguistic praxis of 'lay' language users. The thesis argues that 'legal-lay' discourse is characterised by a dialectical relationship resulting from the attempt by barristers and judges to satisfy both the paradigmatic demands of the law and the lay jury's narrative constructions of social experience. Thus legal professionals invoke a range of discoursal. strategies oriented to both modes. These strategies are explored in a set of corpora of legal-lay genres, including 100 witness examinations and judicial summings-up to the jury. The barrister's discourse is shown to draw heavily on the narrative mode despite paradigmatic legal constraints on witness examination. It is also claimed that accommodation to the narrative mode in the judge's legal directions might assist jury comprehension, but that such 'narrativisation' may increase the risk of judicial bias. The
making case narrative paradigmatic mode legal lay discourse english jury trial study language_use legal professional english jury investigates distinction_two principal cultural cognitive mode examines_effect forensic discourse paradigmatic mode evident discourse professional legal argumentation narrative mode sociolinguistic praxis lay language_user argues legal lay discourse characterise dialectical_relationship result attempt judge satisfy paradigmatic demand law lay jury narrative construction social_experience thus legal professional invoke range discoursal strategy orient mode strategy explore set corpus legal lay genre include witness examination judicial jury discourse show draw_heavily narrative mode despite paradigmatic legal constraint witness examination also claim accommodation narrative mode judge legal direction might assist jury comprehension may increase risk judicial bias