Language Used In The Courtroom Essay

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Based on your visit to the Bristol Crown Court, describe how language is used in the courtroom. Illustrate and evaluate some of the most common strategies that are used by lawyers when cross-examining witnesses, where possible based on data from an actual courtroom.

Introduction

Language is something that is used in everyday life, we use it to communicate, to tell stories, to educate and as a form of power and persuasion. In the setting of the law this applies even more so, different strategies are employed in the courtroom and delivered by lexical choice, narrative, questioning and jargon. In my latest visit to Bristol Crown Court I sat in the pubic gallery and watched a trial unfold, whilst sat in this surreal environment surrounded by the layers of the courtroom, I was a witness to the power dynamics of a courtroom and how language was used in a way to control this.

Review of literature

In day-to-day life we make judgement calls on what we believe is normal. Schemata are pre-conceived ideas that we have, they let us make sense and understand situations. When in the courtroom jurors may reach their verdict differently, some maybe swayed by the arguments proposed by the lawyers, others maybe swayed by other jurors and some will rely on the evidence provided. However, one thing is certain, all of the jurors will be using schemas as a …show more content…

We often group words together in a semantic field, for example the word ‘murder’ has negative connotations. If you look at the language used by the lawyers when the cross examination is taking place, it is clear that they use words that they believe will trigger emotion with the jurors. Halliday suggests that language is the way it is because of what it has to do (Halliday, 1994) this is demonstrated carefully in a courtroom, when lawyers use law jargon and lexemes to suit their

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