This article is based on a corpus of transcripts of four criminal courtroom trials in China. It investigates interruption in the Chinese criminal courtroom discourse as a highly institutionalized and strongly goal-oriented discourse. The study focuses on the number, functions, causes, and distribution of interruptions as well as their correlation with the Chinese legal system and legal culture. Interruptions in Chinese courtroom trials are substantially asymmetrical in terms of the number, functions, and causes in the sense that prosecutors interrupt the most and defense lawyers the least, with judges being in the middle but somewhat closer to prosecutors. A defendant is the most interrupted party. The dominant side, represented by the judge and the prosecutor, interrupts to exercise control by stretching the Gricean maxims to the extreme. In contrast, a defendant interrupts mainly for cooperation or to insist on their right to speak. I also attempt to explain the imbalance by referring to the Chinese judicial system and legal culture and compare the interruption phenomena in Chinese criminal trials with those I observed in the United States.

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GU Yueguo's Politeness Principle for modern Chinese (1998), modeled upon Leech's work and based upon the Chinese culture, was meant to address politeness phenomena in the unique context of China. It consists of the following five maxims, which are different from Leech's model in many ways: i. Self-denigration maxims: (a) denigrate self and (b) elevate other.

This article examines courtroom discourse in China in terms of its three components: the contextual, the interactional, and the propositional. After briefly introducing the Chinese legal culture and system, it considers courtroom questioning and interaction patterns as well as a courtroom judgment. For the analysis of the interactional component, the article uses the transcription of a criminal trial involving a charge of destruction of private property. The data for the analysis of the propositional component is a judgment from a lower court in Shanghai. Courtroom discourse in the article means criminal courtroom discourse, rather than courtroom discourse in general. Fa and Li are two core concepts in traditional Chinese legal culture, and represent the debate between the doctrines of Legalism and Confucianism. The article also introduces some of the key points about judicial proceedings in China, along with courtroom judgment (sentencing).