Exploring courtroom discourse : the language of power and control / edited by Anne Wagner and Le Cheng.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: language, power and control in courtroom discourse / Anne Wagner and Le Cheng -- Understanding courtroom communication through cultural scripts / Kim McCaul -- Witnesses on trial: address and referring terms in U.S. cases / Sarah Dettenwanger -- (False) confessions become compelling at trial / Gillian Grebler -- The role of metadiscourse in counsels' questions / Silvia Cavalieri -- Constructing legal narratives: client-lawyer's stories / Flora Di Donato -- Some uses of magical images in law / Christine A. Corcos -- The construction of admissions of fault through American rules of evidence: speech, silence, and significance in the legal creation of liability / Janet Ainsworth -- The construction of truth in legal decision-making / Petrina Schiavi -- Hidden penalties faced by non-english speakers in the UK criminal justice system: an interpreting perspective / Roxana Rycroft -- Language alternation in Kenyan and Malaysian courts / Richard Powell and Maya David -- Place of arbitration in online proceedings as a simulacrum / Joanna Jemielniak.

This volume presents a combination of practical, empirical research data and theoretical reflection to provide a comparative view of language and discourse in the courtroom. The work explores how the various disciplines of law and linguistics can help us understand the nature of "Power and Control"--Both oral and written - and how it might be clarified to unravel linguistic representation of legal reality. It presents and examines the most recent research and theories at national and international level.