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Evidentiality in US Supreme Court opinions: Focus on passive structures with 'say' and 'tell'
Year: 2021
Type of publication: kapitola v odborné knize
Name of source: Law, language and the courtroom : legal linguistics and the discourse of judges
Publisher name: Routledge
Place: London
Page from-to: 26-38
Titles:
Language Name Abstract Keywords
cze Evidencialita v posudcích Nejvyššího soudu USA: pasivní konstrukce se slovesy ‘say’ a ‘tell’ Článek se zaměřuje na užití pasivních konstrukcí se slovesy vyjadřujícími řečovou činnost, tzv. verba dicendi, v posudcích Nejvyššího soudu USA za využití MS-CADS přístupu a diachronních dat z korpusu SCOTUS. Předmětem analýzy jsou konstrukce 'be said to' a 'be told' v soudní argumentaci a jejími cíli je: 1. prostudovat četnost výskytu těchto konstrukcí z diachronní perspektivy a 2. popsat jejich užití z pohledu vyjadřování evidence a aktuálního členění větného. Dle výsledků analýzy lze sledovat pokles v četnosti výskytu neosobních pasivních konstrukcí ('it is said') a zároveň nárůst v četnosti výskytu konstrukcí s vyjádřeným podmětem ('we are told'). korpus; evidencialita; soudní posudky; pasivum; Nejvyšší soud USA; verba dicendi
eng Evidentiality in US Supreme Court opinions: Focus on passive structures with 'say' and 'tell' The passive form of verba dicendi has attracted considerable research attention, with scholars stressing its role in marking information source (evidentiality) and changing patterns of use (see, e.g., Breeze 2017, 2018). It has also been noted that the passive of reporting verbs is used to redistribute information within the sentence, to mark thematic progression, to avoid repetition and, most importantly, to give credence to the author’s claims without specifying their source (Breeze 2017). Against this backdrop, the current study centres on passive structures with two reporting verbs, i.e. 'say' and 'tell', in US Supreme Court opinions. In the analysis, corpus evidence is used to trace changing trends in their distribution and to explore their evidential (and other) uses in judicial writing. Discussion focuses specifically on ‘BE said to’ (it is said (that); is/are said to) and ‘BE told’ (we are told; I am told). The aim of the analysis is twofold: 1) to explore the frequency and distribution of the focal forms from a modern diachronic perspective and 2) to describe their evidential and discourse-organising role in judicial argumentation. The study follows the MD-CADS approach and bases on diachronic data from the SCOTUS corpus. As the preliminary findings indicate, a decrease in the frequency of impersonal passive structures ('it is said') runs parallel to an increase in the frequency of hearsay forms anchored to the subject ('we are told'). Although both patterns are linked to unnamed sources, the new trend seems to suggest greater author visibility. This, in turn, agrees with diachronic developments noted in other types of formal written discourse. corpus; evidentiality; judicial opinions; passive; US Supreme Court; verba dicendi

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