Courtroom Questioning as a Culturally Situated Persuasive Genre of Talk

Abstract

Questioning takes on culture-specific forms and has culturespecific functions. The purpose of questioning in Chinese criminal courtrooms is not to obtain information; rather it is to persuade. Five patterns of questioning, invoking Chinese cultural notions of shame and morality, are used to extract confessions and remorse from defendants: (i) repeating key questions, (ii) invalidating excuses or accounts, (iii) asking unanswerable questions, (iv) supplying answers, and (v) paraphrasing or restating defendants’ responses. The persuasive power of the questioning discourse structure and the deterrent function of criminal trials in China are also discussed.

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