One of the areas where law and linguistics intersect is in the study of the linguistic interaction of participants in court proceedings—an area known as “courtroom discourse.” Publications in this field tend to have titles like Discourse Dynamics in the Courtroom, Exploring Courtroom Discourse: The Language of Power and Control, and Power Relations in Courtroom Discourse.
While I’m a participant in courtroom discourse, this is an area of linguistics that I haven’t focused on, and I don’t know much about it. However, I recently came across some raw data that might be of interest to those in the field. I’m making it available here in the interest of science.
The data in question consists of the transcript from a criminal proceeding in Australia, excerpts from which are set out below. Please note that a certain amount of stage-setting will be necessary, before we get to the relevant discourse segment, but patience will be rewarded.