Abstract:
To analyze the structure of the communicative situation of the examing witnesses in a criminal court to find out how many communicative events it has and how they are arranged. The thesis also aims to describe the components of each communicative event. The data on which the analysis is based were taken from observing in the courtrooms of Nakornpathom provincial court six different cases of examining witnesses, which are divided into three cases of examining plaintiff witnesses and three cases of examining defense witnesses. The results reveal that this communicative situation consists of eight communicative events in this order : opening, taking an oath, asking a witness's personal information, examinig, cross examining, redirect examining, reading testimony, and closing. The boundary between events is marked by a shift of the purpose. The analysis of the components of communicative events shows that the participants are the judge in charge of the case, the call-in-witness lawyer, and the opposite lawyer as a questioner, the witness as an answerer, the side judge, the courtroom officer, the penitentiary officer, the defendant andthe passive audience. All the events take place in the courtroom where the seating positions are separated clearly for each participant : a tribunal for judges, the desks for lawyers and the courtroom officer, a bar for the witness and the bench for the penitentiary officer, prisoner and other participants. The time is 9.00-12.00 or 13.30-16.30. There are five types of events; opening, taking an oath, asking and answering questions, reading the conclusion, and closing. The topic is to find truth from the witness who knows the details of the case for the judgment later. The main content of the events is asking and answering questions. The participants use standard Thai and non-verbal language to communicate with one another. Altogether, seventeen speech acts are found. They are giving commands, paying respect, taking oaths, making references, asking, answering, explaining, breaking off, warning, arguing, repeating, telling, requesting, asking for allowance, thanking, accepting and informing. It is found that paying respect is the most salient speech act. The rules of interaction are found to consist of ritual rules and speech rules. From these rules, it is inferred that social status is very important in Thai society.