Abstract:
The present study investigated the politeness strategies in legal discourse through an
analysis of cross-examinations conducted at the Winneba District Court. The study is
qualitative, and used document as the data collection method because the data were
obtained from some selected record of proceedings on cross-examination sessions from
2020-2022 at the Winneba District Court. The study is guided by the Politeness Theory
and Speech Acts Theory. Utterances from the cross-examinations is gathered as data.
The researcher analyzed the utterances of all the cross-examiners and the crossexaminees,
and then classified them into politeness strategy themes such as bald onrecord
politeness, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record politeness.
The four themes were further put into sub-themes such as deference, seek agreement,
hedging, apology, request, assert a common ground, among others. The study indicates
that the politeness strategy mostly used is positive politeness, and this is followed by
negative politeness, bald on-record, and finally, off-record politeness. The findings
suggest that it is necessary for cross-examiners and cross-examinees; whether
professional or non-professional to use politeness strategies in order to as much as
possible avoid threatening the face of others they communicate with. The findings
contribute to the understanding of how politeness operates within the context of legal
discourse and have implications for legal practice, courtroom communication, and
politeness theory.
Description:
A Thesis in the Department of Communication Instruction,
School of Media and Communication Studies, submitted to the
School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Communication Instruction)
in the University of Education, Winneba
FEBRUARY, 2024
