Prof. Liu Weiming

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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Prof. Liu Weimings Speech
At the International Association of Forensic
Linguists 7th Biennial Conference on Forensic
Linguistics/Language and Law 1st 4th July
2005, Cardiff University, UK Day 2 Saturday
July 2nd 2005 Room 2 5.00-5.30
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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Weiming Liu Professor, Vice-Dean, IAFL CAFL
Member Dept. of Foreign Languages Law (Post Box
94) Northwest University of Political Science
Law Chang'an Road, Xian, Shaanxi, P. R. China
Phone [phone] E-mail
lweiming_at_hotmail.com Home Page
http//www.flrchina.com/en/
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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Title Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Acts
in Chinese Judges Attached Discourse
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7th IAFL Conference (2005)

• My talk can be divided into four parts
• Introduction
• Illocutionary Act in Chinese Judge's Attached
  Discourse
• Perlocutionary Act in Chinese Judge's Attached
  Discourse
• Conclusion

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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Part 1 Introduction

• Chinese Judges Attached Discourse is one of the
  judicial reforms in China.
• It is a written comment of the judge appended to
  the end of a court verdict.
• It contains moral and ethic exhortations.
• A heated academic debate has been aroused, but it
  is going on all from the legal point of view .
• My paper will deal with this problem
  linguistically

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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Illocutionary Act in Chinese Judges Attached
Discourse
Part 2

• The attached discourse has clear design or
  intention, strong influence and illocutionary
  force.
• 3 Cases cited.
• The discourses produce the moral call to the
  litigants and take its expected effect.

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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Case 1
Money cannot substitute for emotional attachment.
Get rid of old grievances to renew past cordial
family relations. This is not only a question for
the litigants and other sons and daughters to
ponder deeply over, but also a mutual goal for
you to achieve.
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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Case 2
Any happy family will have conflicts between
husband and wife. Now that the conflict has
arisen, the two parties should keep a clear head
with a view to solving the existing problem
through active communication. Congenial love
between husband and wife should rely on complete
confidence in each other at first.
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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Case 3
His father died when the plaintiff was very young
and the defendants spouse died when she was
middle aged. Such things are really tragedies in
the world. The two parties of the case ought to
sympathize with one another because of their
misfortunes, but it is a great pity that they
have instead dispute for the heritage of the dead
and caused more serious damage to their own
hearts. The law can handle this succession
dispute between the two parties fairly, but money
cannot substitute for emotional attachment at
all. The departed is gone his kinsfolk are still
alive. How can the departed close his eyes in his
grave when his kinsfolk are disputing about his
heritage? I wish the two parties to get rid of
old grievances, to respect and love each other,
and to renew their emotional attachment. It will
really be a great joy to see everything happy and
prosperous in your family!
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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Perlocutionary Act in Chinese Judges Attached
Discourse
Part 3

• It seems true that a perlocutionary act does not
  necessarily have any connection with an
  illocutionary act.
• The context of the attached discourse is the
  highly stylized court trial and there are a lot
  of conventions in this context.
• Examples show that the litigants responded to the
  attached discourse in a very positive way.

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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Conclusion
Part 4

• The judges attached discourse is feasible and
  reasonable.
• 3 limitations and problems.

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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
At present, some courts are trying to apply this
kind of discourse to criminal cases concerning
minors as well as civil cases concerning the
disputes of damage compensation and reputation.
The effects are encouraging, because this shows
that the judges attached discourse still has
room for further development. Provided that its
expressions are well-designed according to the
nature of different cases, it will certainly
produce strong illocutionary forces and achieve
excellent consequential effects.
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7th IAFL Conference (2005)
Thank you!