Domestic Abuse in the Courtroom: A Corpus-Aided Discourse Analysis of the Construction of Victimhood at Trial

据估计，在截至2022年3月的一年中，生活在英格兰和威尔士的成年人中有近10%（9.9%）经历过家庭虐待（以下简称DA）（ONS 2022）。尽管这一社会问题的突出，有有限的研究，其语言表现在审判设置。因此，该项目整合了法律语言学，语料库语言学和话语分析的元素，以德普诉听证会（2019年）诽谤审判为案例研究，探索DA在法庭上的语言表征。虽然这次审判的法律的问题涉及Amber Heard在一篇专栏文章中陈述的真实性，但案件取决于是否发生了虐待，以及随着审判的展开，谁是受害者：Depp还是Heard。DA故事的中心地位的情况下，使其成为一个适当的数据源，为解决这个项目的研究目标，这些有一个特别的重点是如何证人声称DA语言导航受害者在法庭上，以及如何这一过程是既方便和禁止他们的审判律师。在法庭上的强奸案中，有大量文献证明了基于性别的暴力受害者在证明其陈述时面临的挑战。事实证明，交叉询问者使用语言手段，如重新表述和控制问题类型，来控制强奸审判中的提问空间，并歪曲原告的证词（Drew 1992;埃利希2001）。这些手段将犯罪叙事转化为一种指责受害者导致强奸的行为，并表明他们实际上希望发生性交（Taslitz 1999; Matoesian 2001;埃利希2010）。DA报纸表征研究（例如，Lindsay-Lindbin等人，2014年）表明，这种形式的受害者刻板印象在媒体话语中也很普遍;诸如受害者指责，攻击受害者的性格，将他们描绘成滥交，以及通过将他们描绘成无法控制的愤怒来原谅肇事者等主题，都被证明在英国和美国的报纸上永久存在（Taylor 2009; Braber 2014; Lloyd and Ramon 2017）。由于媒体在塑造社会问题上的公众舆论方面具有很大的力量（Tuchman 1978; Higgins 2010），而DA审判中的陪审员是公众的代表，因此本研究将探讨这些主题渗透到法庭话语中的程度。该项目将采用语料库驱动的探索性方法，依靠从数据中出现的模式来指导分析的方向（Tognini-Bonelli 2001）。为了促进这一点，将创建一个小型的专门语料库，用于德普和赫德的直接和交叉询问;这些数据来自CourtTV（2023）对审判的广播，总计约50小时。搭配，频率列表和索引的语料库工具都被有效地用于分析法律的话语（Heffer 2005; Potts和Weare 2018; Potts和Formato 2021）;因此，本项目将利用这些工具进行语料库的词汇分析，研究DA及其主题如何在法庭上话语构建。这项研究还将利用会话分析与语料库方法，协同O 'Keefe和沃尔什（2012），以检查这些法庭记录的提取物在定性，特写能力;这将使定量语料库的结果，以进一步探讨他们的international上下文。这项研究将提供什么样的制度（语言）的限制投诉人可能面临的话语构建虐待的故事的见解。获得这种理解的影响是显着的，通过确定这些限制因素，这项研究不仅将提高认识，但也可以指出方向的法律的改革，使DA受害者在法律的系统中获得正义的最佳机会。

Almost 10% (9.9) of adults living in England and Wales were estimated to have experienced domestic abuse (hereafter DA) in the year ending March 2022 (ONS 2022). Despite the prominence of this social issue, there is limited research on its linguistic representation in a trial setting. This project therefore integrates elements of forensic linguistics, corpus linguistics and discourse analysis to explore the linguistic representation of DA in the courtroom, using the Depp v. Heard (2019) defamation trial as a case study. Though the legal issues of this trial concerned the veracity of Amber Heard's statements in an op-ed, the case hinged on whether or not abuse occurred and, as the trial unfolded, who was the victim: Depp or Heard. The centrality of DA stories to the case make it an appropriate data source for addressing this project's research aims; these have a particular focus on how witnesses alleging DA linguistically navigate victimhood in court, and how this process is both facilitated and prohibited by their trial lawyers. Within the context of rape in the courtroom, there is a wealth of literature evidencing the challenges victims of gender-based violence face in proving their accounts. Cross-examiners have been shown to use linguistic devices, such as reformulations and controlling question-types, to dominate the interactional space in rape trials and distort complainants' testimonies (Drew 1992; Ehrlich 2001). These devices transform the crime narrative into one that blames the victim for their actions leading up to rape, and suggests they actually wanted the intercourse to happen (Taslitz 1999; Matoesian 2001; Ehrlich 2010). Research on DA newspaper representation (e.g. Lindsay-Brisbin et al. 2014) suggests this form of victim stereotyping is also prevalent in media discourse; themes such as victim blaming, attacking the victim's character in depicting them as promiscuous, and excusing the perpetrator by portraying them as having uncontrollable rage, have all been shown to be perpetuated in newspapers in the UK and US (Taylor 2009; Braber 2014; Lloyd and Ramon 2017). Since the media hold great power in shaping public opinion on social issues (Tuchman 1978; Higgins 2010), and jurors in DA trials are representative of the public, this research will explore the extent to which these themes permeate into courtroom discourse. This project will take a corpus-driven, exploratory approach, relying on the patterns that emerge from the data to guide the direction of the analysis (Tognini-Bonelli 2001). To facilitate this, a small, specialised corpus will be created of the direct and cross-examinations of Depp and Heard; these total around 50 hours' worth of data from CourtTV's (2023) broadcasting of the trial. Corpus tools of collocation, frequency lists and concordances have all been effectively used in the analysis of legal discourse (Heffer 2005; Potts and Weare 2018; Potts and Formato 2021); this project will therefore utilise these tools to undertake lexical analysis of the corpus, examining how DA and its themes around victimhood are discursively constructed in the courtroom. The study will also utilise Conversation Analysis alongside corpus methods, a synergy pioneered by O'Keefe and Walsh (2012), to examine extracts of those courtroom transcripts in a qualitative, close-up capacity; this will enable the quantitative corpus findings to be explored further in their interactional context. This study will provide insights into what institutional (linguistic) constraints complainants may face in discursively constructing stories of abuse. The implications of gaining this understanding are significant; through identifying these constraints, this research will not only raise awareness, but could also indicate directions for legal reform that would give DA victims the best chance at attaining justice in the legal system.