Institutional interaction in traffic law enforcement in China: Resistance and obedience

On-site law enforcement is routine work for Chinese traffic police to effectively control a congested city. Misunderstanding, confusion, and even conflict frequently occur between traffic police and offenders about traffic offence penalties. Based on an analysis of digital recordings, the present study investigates institutional interaction from a semiotic perspective. The institutional discourse, taken as a sign, creates an interpretant in the language of traffic police, which works as representamen to be interpreted by offenders. By examining the meaning construction in the interaction, the study reveals the way police impose penalties exploiting the impact of their linguistic, professional and social background. The findings indicate that the resistance or obedience to penalties is a reflection of the interpretant produced by the offenders in the process of mediation. As China has recently made great progress in the creation of rules of law, police organizations have established many new clauses, covering every aspect of police routine. However, the clauses relating to the use of legal language for police officers encountering offenders can, to some degree, result in different interpretations of the obscure language and conventional procedures, which can thus impede effective communication between two participants. Apart from the rigid limitation on and strict observance of legal language choices, the imbalanced distribution of legal knowledge between professionals and laymen, the complexity of identity construction and historical and social cultures may impose constraints on the institutional discourse. This study suggests that the police should be aware of institutional discourse as a semiotic process and should modify their linguistic strategy to effect positive interaction.