Impoliteness and the Hutton Inquiry

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Impoliteness and the Hutton Inquiry

• Charlotte Taylor
• Università degli Studi di Siena

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(No Transcript)
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The corpus

• The Hutton Inquiry
• Called urgently to investigate the circumstances
  surrounding the death of Dr. Kelly
• 1 August 13 October 2003
• 74 witnesses, 8 QCs
• Nearly 1 million tokens, of which hostile
  examination forms approximately 120,000

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A (very) Public Inquiry

• As an instance of courtroom discourse the
  interaction is performed for beneficiaries
• Media exposure to date
• Telegraph 606 articles
• Independent 848 articles
• Google 254,000 hits
• Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the
  death of David Kelly

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Face

• the public self image that every member wants
  to claim for himself Brown and Levinson 1987
  61
• Negative face
• Positive face
• Competence face
• Affective face Partington 2006

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Face-work

• Friendly cross-examination
• Common goal
• Co-operative face-work
• Enhancing face
• Hostile cross-examination
• Opposing goals
• Aggressive face-work
• Threatening face

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The aggressive use of face-work

• In aggressive interchanges the winner not only
  succeeds in introducing information favorable to
  himself and unfavorable to others, but also
  demonstrates that as interactant he can handle
  himself better than his adversaries
• Goffman 1967 25

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Why impoliteness?

• 2004 2007
• A model that would bring out the role of
  face-work
• A model that would allow for both participants to
  be analysed

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A model of impoliteness

• Culpeper (1996, 2003, 2005)
• designed as a parallel to Brown and Levinsons
  Politeness framework
• Positive impoliteness
• Negative impoliteness
• Sarcasm or mock politeness
• Withhold politeness

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• What is considered appropriate is dependent on
  the discourse context

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The discourse context

• Each participant must reject the others
  narrative in order to forward their own
• The witnesss face is part of the narrative
• Each participant is working within
• the constraints of the role assigned (Q/R)
• the institutional expectations

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Keywords QC discoursehostile/friendly
examination
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QC discourse Hostile examinationnot clusters
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Aggressive face-work in QC discourse

• Negative face
• Restrict the R turn
• Negative interrogatives
• Question tags
• Non-interrogative forms
• Repetition
• Interruption

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Aggressive face-work in QC discourse

• Super-strategies often mixed
• Q. Gompertz Do you not agree that Dr Kelly
  was treated shabbily in relation to this episode?
• R. Howard No, I do not agree.

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Witness discourse keywords friendly/hostile
examination
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witness discourseL1 collocates of not
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Aggressive face-work in witness discourse

• Non-cooperation rejection of the narrative
• Q. SUMPTION You sought to mislead.
• R. GILLIGAN No, I did not.

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Sanctioned aggressive face-workPlaying the part

• Politic behaviour is linguistic behaviour which
  is perceived to be appropriate to the social
  constraints of the ongoing interaction Watts
  2003 19

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QC discourse Hostile examinationnot clusters
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Aggressive face-work in QC discourse

• I am not
• focus on the interaction

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QC discourse ing clusters
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Aggressive face-work in QC discourse Querying
the response
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Aggressive face-work in QC discourse
Reformulating the response
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Aggressive face-work in QC discourse

• talk about the ongoing talk

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Aggressive face-work in QC discourse Rejecting
the answer
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• transactional interactional

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Witness discourse keywords friendly/hostile
examination
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(Im)politeness

• is linguistic behaviour which is perceived to
  be beyond what is expectable Watts 2003 19

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Witness discourse keywords friendly/hostile
examination
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Witness discourse Positive Impoliteness

• Challenging the QC
• Q. GOMPERTZ I think I asked her whether she
  could say whether you did see it.
• R. HOON No, no, I am quoting you directly, Mr
  Gompertz
• Challenging the QCs knowledge / asserting
  superior knowledge
• R. HATFIELD No, I do not accept that. When you
  have had the opportunity to look at the very
  detailed 44-paragraph guidance
• R. DAVIES I agree with that, Mr Sumption and if
  you knew my colleagues you would not think they
  were acting as amplifiers to anybody.
• Challenging the relevance of the question
• R. SAMBROOK No. As I have explained to you
  before,

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Impoliteness in witness discourse question
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Impoliteness in witness discourse Challenging
the question
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A model of impoliteness

• Positive impoliteness
• Negative impoliteness
• Sarcasm or mock politeness
• Withhold politeness

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Impoliteness in witness discourseMock politeness

• Q. CALDECOTT I just have to find the passage that
  I want to show you because, for ease's sake, I
  had been ...
• R. SCARLETT This is not the draft, is it?
• Q. CALDECOTT I have found the second but I still
  need to find --
• R. SCARLETT This is not the draft, this is the
  covering note ...
• Q. CALDECOTT Sorry, I still need to find it.
• R. SCARLETT No, I sympathise.

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Impoliteness in witness discourse Withhold
politeness

• HUTTON I want to be clear. You are not making
  any point then to Mr Scarlett about these
  documents.
• Q. CALDECOTT My Lord, I think I have to abandon
  that.
• HUTTON That can be totally ignored?
• Q. CALDECOTT Yes.
• HUTTON Very well. Thank you.
• R. SCARLETT Thank you.
• Q. CALDECOTT One nil to you, Mr Scarlett, I
  think on that document.
• R. SCARLETT I did not do anything, I just sat
  here.
• Q. CALDECOTT Can I go on to deal very shortly
  with

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QC responses to impoliteness
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QC discourse in hostile examinationnot clusters
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QC discourse in hostile examinationQC responses
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QC responses to impoliteness

• Assertion of institutional power
• Focus on institutional expectations

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QC responses to impoliteness

• R. DAVIES We did say it. There was no watering
  down. We said we asked the executive to conduct
  an investigation. If we had taken a decision on
  the night, Mr Sumption, you would be standing
  here saying I took a knee jerk decision that was
  too rapid
• Q. SUMPTION Could we look at BBC/6/111, please?
  Can we take it, from the second bullet point on
  this press release, that
• R. HOON I apologise for interrupting you. But
  the suggestion you are making is there is some
  evidence that I leaked it. Perhaps you would
  indicate where it is so that I can comment on it.
• Q. GOMPERTZ We will come to that in just a
  moment. What I am going to ask you next is this,
  Mr Hoon. You say ..

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QC responses to impoliteness

• R. SCARLETT You say "only battlefield
  munitions". Do you know what a battlefield
  munition, a battlefield weapon, might actually
  involve? I can tell
• Q. CALDECOTT Mr Scarlett, I totally take the
  point but you are well aware, are you not, of
  the distinction between range and casualty?

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QC responses to impoliteness

• Q. GOMPERTZ This was the draft which became
  the material which was approved for use yes?
• R. HATFIELD If you tell me it is.
• Q. GOMPERTZ That is the evidence. I would like
  you to tell his Lordship, please,

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(No Transcript)