Il discorso riportato nei processi. Tipologie e funzioni

This paper aims tocontribute to the reflection on the use of reported speech in the judiciaryfield.The scenario of reference chosenis the trial following the “Erba Massacre” which took place on 11thDecember 2006. A linguistic analysis was conducted on the material used duringthe episodes of the TV programme “Un giorno in Pretura” that dealt with thiscase. A critical examination of the comments reveals from a linguistic point ofview the considerable incidence of reported speech in communicative contexts ofcontrolled public speaking.The introduction briefly outlinesthe theoretics behind the main forms of reported speech, i.e. “direct” and“indirect”, as well as the functions attributed to each. The next sectionprovides a detailed analysis of collected data samples, which point out howdifficult and at times impossible it is to pinpoint one particular function asthe main feature for any given form of reported speech.In conclusion, it may be saidthat also in the judiciary field, the need emerges to take into considerationthe fact that reported speech has a wide range of possible functions and tocarry out a functional analysis that may highlight the main functions on a caseby case basis, depending on the communicative context in which it appears.