Reporting Talk when Testifying. Intertextuality, Consistency and Transformation in Witness Use of Direct Reported Speech

Using the conversation analytic methodology, the paper analyses how “direct reported speech” (DRS) is introduced and used by witnesses in a criminal trial. The analysis traces the career of particular instances of quoted speech through different phases of a notable murder trial in Italy, and shows how witnesses for both parties endeavor to sustain and contest the evidential status of “the same discursive event” through the iteration of the “same” quotation. The author analyzes the main differences between professionals’ and the witnesses’ use of DRS during the trial and, starting from Philips’ analysis of professionals’ use of DRS in legal setting, she shows that witnesses also tend to use this discursive device in a stable and consistent manner, thus demonstrating that they are oriented to the relevance of its evidentiary function.