COURTROOM INTERACTION FROM A SOCIO-COGNITIVE POINT OF VIEW

Abstract

            Since its emergence ‘pragmatics’ is perceived as one sided, either ‘attention-oriented’ (cognitive) or ‘intention-directed’ (socio-cultural). However, recently there has been some tendencies that pragmatics should be viewed as concerning with both individualistic and societal sides. This paper sheds light on the linguistic behavior of males and females’ native speakers of English in courtroom interaction from a socio-cognitive pragmatic point of view. The study Examines the extent to which native speakers are driven by the principle of egocentrism and/ or cooperation in their communication. The study is also interested in the extent to which the proposition produces by the speaker can be exactly the same as that which would be recovered by the hearer. The study adopts Kecskes’s (2008) Dynamic Model of Meaning to investigate 24 discourse segments taken from the famous YouTube channel ‘Caught in Providence’. To this end, the study uses a qualitative method to data analysis; associated with a nonexperimental observational methodology. The study concludes that although interlocutors have the willingness to cooperate, however, they are subconsciously led by their egocentrism. For them, cooperation can be considered as a tradeoff between individual attention and social intention.