Discursive exploration of oral examinations in law from systemic functional linguistics: An application of the figure system

Abstract

This paper explores the discourse and field of Law through the study of formal oral examinations in Law teaching, known in Spanish as 'solemnes', which are widely used in Chilean universities. The research is underpinned by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and it aims to identify key ideational discourse semantic patterns in a group of highly graded examinations, based on the figure system (Hao, 2020a). This approach proposes a clearer theoretical and methodological distinction between experiential discourse semantic and lexicon-grammar resources, dealt with in the transitivity system. The analysis allows identifying, on one hand, a predominance of figures oriented towards the construction of technical entities and their relations and, on the other, a group of figures of a more dynamic order, oriented towards constructing forms of reasoning. This analysis enables interpretations of field constructed in oral examinations at this stage of training in Law, demonstrating the productivity of the figure system for the study of specialised discourses in Spanish from a systemic perspective.