William M. O'Barr

Speech style and impression formation in a court setting: The effects of “powerful” and “powerless” speech

Abstract On the basis of a previous empirical analysis of speech patterns in court trials, speech styles were identified that covaried with speaker social status and power. The “powerless” style is characterized by the frequent use of such linguistic features as intensifiers, hedges, hesitation forms, and questioning intonations, whereas the “powerful” style is marked by less frequent use of these features. Male and female introductory psychology students heard the testimony of a male or female witness who used either a powerful or a powerless style to deliver the same substantive evidence. The testimony was presented either on audio tape or in written transcripts. Use of the powerful style resulted in greater attraction to the witness, regardless of the sex of the witness, the sex of the subject, or the mode of presentation of the testimony. The powerful style also resulted in greater perceived credibility of the witness than did the powerless style; however, this effect was stronger when the subject and the witness were of the same sex than when they were of the opposite sex. In all but the male witness-written presentation condition, the powerful style produced more acceptance of the position advocated in the testimony than did the powerless style. The results are discussed with regard to possible relations between speech style and person perception and persuasion processes and with regard to the social psychology of legal issues.

When Cultures Collide: Social Security and the Market

In his 1999 State of the Union address, President Clinton raised the possibility of investing social security funds in the equities market. In this article, two anthropologists who have studied the culture of the financial world assess the Presidents proposal. The analysis focuses on the vast cultural gap between the private-sector participants in the equities market and the federal bureaucrats who would inevitably manage social security investments. The authors examine similar arrangements at the state level, the cultural differences among the entities involved, and how those differences interfere with fiduciary decision-making. They conclude that the gap is simply too wide for the proposal to be workable, and as a result, the adverse consequences likely outweigh the potential benefits. Although some consequences are foreseeable, more threatening consequences can be envisioned only in the most general terms.

The Study of Language in Institutional Contexts

Studies relating language and institutions have emerged independently in several disciplines, including social psychology, social anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and others, as researchers have questioned conventional boundaries of concern. Language and law is examined as an indicative case for language-institu tion studies. The field shows vitality in research relating language to education, medicine, commerce, etc., but very little agreement upon priorities in topic, method, or theory. Rather, research tends to be informed by questions and approaches that reflect disciplinary concerns. It is suggested that researchers investigating language-institution relations do share many issues arising out of the hybrid origins and the non-conventionality of issues considered. The particular experiences of the author are discussed to show how his own interests in language in institutional contexts developed and to provide a specific opportunity to analyse the general issues facing researchers in language-instruction contexts. In conclu sion, it is argued that language-institution studies must go beyond merely noticing language in institutional contexts by attempting to speak to important and signifi cant questions about language, institutions, or both.

Conversational analysis is alive, well, and prospering in England

J. Maxwell Atkinson and Paul Drew. Order in Court: The Organization of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings. Atlantic Highlands, N. J.: Humanities Press, 1979. ix + 275 pp. Notes, references, and index. (Published in Oxford Socio‐Legal Studies Series, J. Maxwell Atkinson, Donald R. Harris, and R. M. Hartwell, general eds.)

THE NATURE OF LEGAL LANGUAGE

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Tradition and identity in changing Africa

This chapter discusses the nature of legal language. This chapter focuses primarily on American legal language. It explores legal language as it differs from ordinary English, and discusses the way in which its written and spoken varieties differ from one another. A number of important studies of language and law are reviewed to facilitate an understanding of the basic issues that have attracted practical and scholarly attention, the conclusions that have been reached, and the questions that remain. It is perhaps reasonable to suggest that anthropologists should have devoted more attention to spoken than written language. This interest is largely because of the types of societies and legal systems they have traditionally studied.

Linguistic Evidence: Language, Power, and Strategy in the Courtroom

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