Sociolinguistic, interpreting and political dimensions of English-language court discourse of 21ST century
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: The article outlines aspects of the English language use in court discourse in English-speaking countries and in European countries where English is becoming a working language of legal proceedings, though it officially remains a foreign language.The purpose of the research is to assess linguistic aspect of the modern courtroom discourse, to characterize the role of legal English in non-English-speaking countries and the problems that accompany its introduction as a language of legal proceedings.The novelty of the research lies in that it views peculiarities of English language use in court discourse as markers or triggers of social or political processes.The analysis has revealed that in the English-speaking UK and the USA language may be an obstacle to effective communication in the courtroom due to social fragmentation into subcultures.Since social groups often develop sociolects unintelligible to outsiders and the courtroom brings together people from different strata and of different backgrounds, their slang may affect judges and jurors' understanding.The research points out that semantic opacity of slang lexemes is clarified with the help of crowdsourced online dictionaries as they record slang fast and reflect their genuine users' interpretation.Another language-related problem in American and British courts is the increasing demand for interpreting.Court interpreters are challenged not only to be precise with facts but also to be accurate in preserving stylistic features of interpreted speech as these details inform the court of the party's personality, intentions, emotional state, etc.The experience of English-language courts established in non-English-speaking European countries highlights the linguistic complexity of the switch between languages in court proceedings.The switch takes place in at least five stages.Admitting English as a litigation language raises the issues of equality, linguistic discrimination and democratic transparency.The research concludes that English in courtroom discourse of the 21 st century reflects the multidirectional tendencies to linguistic diversification and unification and, therefore, requires an interdisciplinary approach that combines sociolinguistics, translation, law and political studies.
Authors: Oksana TOPCHII, Tetyana CHAIUK
Institution: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3200219032