The consequences and effects of language transformations in legal discourse

The discursive use of language in legal contexts is multifaceted and complex. First, it begins with the chain of oral narrative structures (victim, witness, suspect accounts) and written texts (confessions, notes, depositions, letters, Internet documents, email, tweets, telephone records) used in a court of law. The transcription of oral communiques is a potentially transformative phase of evidence production that may be flawed (ambiguity, error, mistakes, gaps, misrepresentation). Second, it includes or/excludes the textual and narrative representation of nonverbal communication (kinesics, paralanguage, proxemics) and how it is recorded (transcripts, graphics, video, enactments). At each stage of the legal process, interpretation of narrative structures and texts plays a key role in the ultimate meaning of verbal and nonverbal communication. Third, it concerns interrogation strategies and tactics in preliminary evidence gathering as well as in the courtroom. Fourth, it involves translation of documents written in another language or interpretation of oral statements in another language to the language of the courtroom.