Courtroom talk and neocolonial control / by Diana Eades.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eades, Diana, 1953-

Series:

Language, power, and social process ; 22.

Language, power and social process ; 22

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Trials (Police misconduct)--Australia--Brisbane (Qld.).

Trials (Police misconduct).

Police misconduct--Australia--Pinkeba.

Police misconduct.

Examination of witnesses--Australia--Language.

Examination of witnesses.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration--Australia.

Discrimination in criminal justice administration.

Intercultural communication--Australia.

Intercultural communication.

Cross-examination--Australia.

Cross-examination.

Youth, Aboriginal Australian--Legal status, laws, etc.

Youth, Aboriginal Australian.

Pinkenba (Brisbane, Qld.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (412 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The book uses critical sociolinguistic analysis to examine the social consequences of courtroom talk. The focus of the study is the cross-examination of three Australian Aboriginal boys who were prosecution witnesses in the case of six police officers charged with their abduction. The analysis reveals how the language mechanisms allowed by courtroom rules of evidence serve to legitimize neocolonial control over Indigenous people. In the propositions and assertions made in cross-examination, and their adoption by judicial decision-makers, the three boys were constructed not as victims of police abuse, but rather in terms of difference, deviance and delinquency. This identity work addresses fundamental issues concerning what it means to be an Aboriginal young person, as well as constraints about how to perform or live this identity, and the rights to which Aboriginal people can lay claim, while legitimizing police control over their freedom of movement. Understanding this courtroom talk requires analysis of the sociopolitical and historical actions and structures within which the courtroom hearing was embedded. Through this analysis, the interrelatedness of structure, agency, constraint and change, which is central to critical sociolinguistics, becomes apparent. In its investigation of language ideologies that underpin courtroom talk, as well as the details of how language is used, and the social consequences of this talk, the book highlights the need for far-reaching changes to courtroom rules of evidence.

Contents:

Setting the theoretical scene

The societal and institutional struggle

Features of Aboriginal English communicative style

Lexical strategies

Linguistic mechanisms for identity construction

Absolutely no regard whatsoever for law and order : David

More court appearances than some solicitors : Albert

Not a person to be overborne: Barry

No fear of the police : closing the Pinkenba case

Developments since the Pinkenba case

The power of courtroom talk.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 347-378) and indexes.

ISBN:

9786613428639

9783110204834

3110204835

9781283428637

1283428636

9783110208320

3110208326

OCLC:

476196979