GibbonsWord格式.docx

1、John GibbonsUniversity of SydneyABSTRACTThere is a small literature on the transformations that occur in transcripts in legal English （Eades, 1996; Walker, 1990）, but little on what happens in languages other than English. This is an important issue for Roman/ Continental law systems, which rely in

2、their decision-making largely upon written transcripts of oral evidence. This study examines the linguistic consequences of the transcription process, based upon Spanish language tape recordings of oral submissions, and the written declaraciones （statements） that emerge, in a labour court in Santiag

3、o de Chile.It reveals far-reaching consequences for the language of the evidence, particularly because of the greater planning and editing potential of writing. There are tendencies to move to more complex syntactic structures, to use more passive type structures thereby colouring blame attribution,

4、 to use more technical language, and to edit material, both unnecessary redundancies, and substantive facts.These findings support current changes to the Chilean justice system, which replace this type of interview with open court hearings.IntroductionThe Chilean justice systemThe Chilean system of

5、justice is a part of the worlds most widespread form of justice, Roman Law. It is an inquisitorial system, attempting to uncover truth through questioning and the examination of documentary and material evidence. Unlike the adversarial system, most courtroom questioning of witnesses is done by a rel

6、ator, a court official with legal training, and this testimony is typed up in the form of a relato as witnesses speak. If a witness is evasive or fails to appear, this is taken as an admission of guilt or culpability. Usually several witnesses in a case are questioned, and this sequence of interview

7、s is called an audiencia. The set of relatos are then passed to the judge with a summary written by the relator. Most judgments are reached on the basis of this written information, particularly the summary, but judges may choose to interview the witnesses themselves, particularly if there is a conf

8、lict or issue that is not resolved by the relators interviews. At the end of 2000 a process of change began in the Chilean legal system, with a move in some parts of the country to a more adversarial justice system along the lines of similar changes in Germany, Italy and Argentina, but it had not re

9、ached Santiago at the time of this investigation. These changes constitute a move to an open court system with verbatim recording of questioning, and the Chilean Presidents speech to parliament （note 1） on these changes stated explicitly that they are intended to increase accountability and transpar

10、ency. This paper will examine what happens in the process of the conversion from spoken interaction to written monologue since as far as I am aware there is almost no information on this, and indeed only limited information on legal Spanish （but see Duarte in Monserrat & Martnez, 1995）. The paper an

11、d throw light on some of the issues underlying the current changes to the Chilean judicial system.The interviewThe interviews with witnesses and parties performed by a relator go through a series of stages; in Martins （1992） terms the interview is a genre. Before the interview begins the relator may

12、 obtain from the lawyers any question that they want asked in the repreguntas stage of the interview （there is no direct examination by opposing lawyers of the type found in the Common Law system）. The interview genre is along the following lines.Figure 1 The interview genrePersonal DataIdentificati

13、on: the interviewee produces a National Identity Card, and the relator inserts the details, including full name and identity number on the word processorEmployment: Profesin u oficio? （Profession or employment?）Address:Domicilio? （Home address?Swearing in （Juramento） Juro por dios decir la verdad （I

14、 swear by God to tell the truth）Interview Proper （Declaracin）Framing Form of repliesForm of questionsType of questionsThe case and the participantsExaminationdepends on the case, but often what, when, who, where and why questions （perhaps with that order underlying）; responses are routinely reformul

15、ated by the relator as yesno confirmation questions, and it is these reformulations that tend to be recorded.Lawyers questions （Repreguntas）EndingConclusionTranscript read aloud for checking/changesInterviewee signsThe contextThe court that I am discussing today is the Octavo Juzgado Laboral de Santiago, the Eighth Santiago Labor Court. Labour courts handle disputes between employers and employees on the basis of labour law. The Octavo Juzgado occupies a scruffy multistorey building on a busy corner in downtown Santia