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‘No, I’m not asking you to pretend. I’m giving you a hypothetical.’ Hypotheticals and the (de)construction of knowledge in expert witness cross-examination
Year: 2021
Type of publication: ostatní - přednáška nebo poster
Page from-to: nestránkováno
Titles:
Language Name Abstract Keywords
eng ‘No, I’m not asking you to pretend. I’m giving you a hypothetical.’ Hypotheticals and the (de)construction of knowledge in expert witness cross-examination Although it sparks controversy, the hypothetical question is admissible under the federal rules of evidence in the Anglo-American judicial system (Weissenberger & Duane, 2012) and it continues to be used in examinations of expert witnesses. From a linguistic point of view, hypothetical questions convey unassertable assumptions (Dancygier, 1998) and give speakers the possibility to communicate what potential consequences an action may cause or judgments about the likelihood of an event (Nordström, 2010, p. 284). Thus, rather than provide a “validated truth”, hypotheticals offer inferences from an “assumed truth” and are a form of conjecture aiming to elicit an alternative cognitive framework (Brodsky et al., 2012). When used in jury trials, hypothetically framed questions seek to convince the jurors and to affect their perception and interpretation of the evidence. Against this background, in my talk I will examine how such questions are employed to convey epistemic stance and to (de)construct knowledge during expert witness cross-examination. To this end, I will look at interactional data (videos and transcripts) from two high-profile criminal trials (California v. Murray; Arizona v. Arias). Specifically, taking a discourse-analytic perspective, I will consider the type of questions asked, the expert witnesses’ responses and the pragmatic effects achieved by the interactants. I will thus demonstrate how the use of hypothetical questions aids cross-examining attorneys in deconstructing unfavourable testimony and constructing legal “truths” which support their narratives. cross-examination; epistemicity; expert testimony; hypotheticals; jury trial

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