Chapter 13. Forms of address in courtroom discourse in Englishes of the “Inner Circle”

Abstract

Being a pluricentric language, English exists in different varieties that have their culture-specific features at all levels of language and its functioning. This study focuses on legal English and explores forms of address and terms of reference to judges of different levels in the Englishes of the “inner circle” (Kachru 1988: 5) in a courtroom setting. The data were taken from legal documents, dictionaries, British and American corpora, some secondary sources and were studied within the framework of comparative semantic, pragmatic, discourse and cultural analysis. The findings show (1) noticeable variations in forms of address and reference to judges and their functioning; (2) excessive hierarchy and formality in British English, and more democratic patterns of addressing judges in other varieties. The study gives new data illustrating that lexical and discursive variability observed in the legal sphere contributes to the formation of language varieties and can be considered among their constituent elements.