The organization of questions and answers in the thematic phases of hostile examination: Turn-by-turn manipulation of meaning.

The article studies the manipulation of meanings between legal professionals and witnesses as it unfolds turn by turn in a hostile examination. Eleven hours of video-recording of the Italian criminal trial against Sergio Cusani were fully transcribed, resulting in 3700 turns of talk (1850 question turns and 1850 answers), which were analyzed on the basis of the conversational and discursive approach. Besides identifying the basic feature of the question and answers turns, our qualitative and quantitative data show how legal professionals and witnesses use different strategies to impose their own line of argument. In general, the more frequently the lawyers use a question the more it is coercive. Witnesses, on their side, prefer to provide elaborate answers. Moreover, the study provides evidence of the interconnection between the use of the strategies during the blame-implicative ‘thematic phases’ and the sequential organization of turns.