本文是一篇语言学论文，本文以法庭上收集到的真实数据为基础，对检察官在法庭话语中的不礼貌行为进行了较为全面的研究。本章分析了不可容忍的不礼貌、合法化不礼貌的实现和特征以及通过礼貌来管理不礼貌，并总结了检察官不礼貌的三种语用功能。
1.Introduction
1.1 Research background
With a long history, China is known for its remarkable civilization and good etiquette observed by Chinese people, which are also reflected in judicial activity. At the special social activity, people are also expected to follow the rules of politeness according to the law and social rules, which in particular govern the language and behavior of professional legal workers in courtroom for judicial justice, credibility, and an effective trial. Among them, public prosecutor who exercises the power of public prosecution on behalf of the procuratorial institution is required to observe and take advantage of judicial etiquette to help achieve justice, reveal the truth, reduce false and wrong charges, and raise judicial credibility.
Regulation makers and Chinese national law have paid more and more attention to civilized language and politeness in courtroom discourse. It is stated in the regulation or conduct of code that the court staff should treat the litigants and other participants with proper appellation, appropriate language, gentle tone and a fair attitude. They should avoid domineering, blunt language, rough attitude, the improper use of language, and be strictly prohibited using words which might hurt the feelings of the people or may intensify the contradiction that is not significant to the case.
However, prosecutors are often confronted with a difficult question of which one to choose: politeness or impoliteness to achieve their institutional goals and assume their responsibility. Every coin has two sides. Showing respect and sympathy on one hand has the potential to touch the defendant, making a difference in his or her confession and ethical education. On the other hand, the prosecutor might be seen as an approachable and incompetent person who can be gullible, thus hindering the trail.
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1.2 Research objectives and significance
This study looks into the impoliteness of prosecutors in courtroom discourse. Since powerful participants not only do impoliteness but are supported by the social power in doing so; a prosecutor is licensed to make accusations against and interrogate defendants to reveal the truth and maintain justice. The investigation into the use of impoliteness by prosecutors will take into account the factors above around the “licensed” and “unlicensed” impolite utterances. Besides, given the study that there are some contexts in which speakers use common politeness strategies to express impolite meaning in institutional discourse, the study is inspired to consider cases in which how impoliteness is realized by prosecutor’s polite utterances, which is seldom examined before. Recent face, social norm and interpersonal approaches to (im)politeness alone seem unable to obtain the study’s objective, so Appraisal Theory is introduced to help solve the problem of legitimacy of prosecutor’s use of impoliteness.
With the impoliteness theory and Appraisal Theory constructing the theoretical framework and Chinese courtroom discourse selected as the data, the study seeks to explore the realizations, frequency, appropriateness, and legitimacy of impoliteness of prosecutors in the courtroom and discuss how politeness can contribute to impoliteness in the institution. It is also an attempt to examine the pragmatic functions of impoliteness and explore the close relationship between identity and impoliteness to see how the asymmetry of social structural power is reflected and how social identity is constructed in courtroom discourse. It is hoped that this dissertation can enrich the (im)politeness study in courtroom discourse.
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2.Literature Review
2.1 Studies on Courtroom Discourse
Studies on courtroom discourse have been widely discussed for a long time, which can be traced back to an
