Judicial communication and language strategies in the courts and tribunals of Kinshasa

Abstract

The author circumscribes his study from a perspective that includes aspects of linguistics, interactional sociolinguistics, sociology of language and the pragmatics of communication. It analyzes the language and discursive strategies used by the interactants, in judicial proceedings, in the courts and tribunals of Kinshasa. The main emphasis is on dialogue, interview, retort, evocation, inference, contestation, recusal, adaptation of speech, choice and alternation of codes as well as questioning - responses that characterize judicial communication.