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‘No, I’m not asking about domestic violence. I’m asking very specific questions about…’ On the use of negation 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 about domestic violence. I’m asking very specific questions about…’ On the use of negation in expert witness cross-examination Expert witness examination is a special type of interaction during which the expert witness communicates specialised knowledge to help the trier of fact to draw conclusions and form independent opinions about the evidence. Opposing counsel, in turn, employ various questioning tactics to undermine the validity of the testimony and to attack the witness’s credibility. The aim of such hostile questioning is not to arrive at an objective scientific truth, but rather to construct a legal (admissible) truth supporting the cross-examining attorney’s narrative (cf. Matoesian 1999; Cotterill 2003). With that in mind, in my talk I will demonstrate how one such tactic, i.e. the use of negation, serves the trial participants’ communicative ends. Taking a discourse-pragmatic perspective, I will consider the functions of negation in both the counsel’s and the witnesses’ turns. Specifically, using data from the Arizona v. Arias trial, I will reveal interactional patterns involving negatively asserted information and the way in which they aid the counsel in controlling the trajectory of the questioning. At the same time, I will show how negation is used by the witnesses to claim no-knowledge and to resist the knowledge claims attributed to them by the counsel. The analysis will thus explain the role of negation in the formulation and (re)negotiation of knowledge (cf. Tsui 1991; Beach and Metzger 1997), and in the creation of the epistemic tension between the interactants, adding to the body of research into stance-taking practices in professional settings. courtroom interaction; negation; expert testimony; expert witness; jury trial

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