An Analysis of the Structures of Adjacency Pairs in Cross-Examination in Chinese Courtroom Conversation

Abstract

Based on the Theory of Conversation Analysis, taking real trial videos of China Court Trial Online as the source of the corpus, this paper employs a qualitative method to further clarify the categorization of phenomena such as incomplete turns and instances where listeners complete a speaker’s turn, examining whether they should be considered distinct conversational turns. Subsequently, this paper proceeds to conduct quantitative analyses of the structure types of adjacency pairs in cross-examination of court trials. It was found that the chain structure dominated by the “Enquire-Answer” accounted for the largest proportion, and the adjacent four-part structure of “Enquire-Answer-Repetition/Confirmation-Affirmation/Negation” type ranked second. The ring-type structure, which accounts for the third place, is mainly used together with other adjacent pairs comprehensively, and mainly relies on the feedback items to form the ring-type structure. Such a rule is determined by the purpose of cross-examination, which fully reflects the characteristics of its institutional discourse. On this basis, this paper suggests that the compilation of cross-examination dialogues in legal Chinese textbooks should be arranged according to the frequency of use of adjacent formal structure types. And the structure types of adjacent pairs should be consciously guided in teaching. The situational teaching Method would help to establish a mock court to improve students’ communicative competence.