testimony

[MIA6]

1.What does testimony mean? Does it mean evidence?
2.When you testify, it means you give evidence against yourself? Is it the same as 'self-incrimination' which is an accusation that incriminates yourself(Is this definition right)?

thanks.

[Pete]

1.What does testimony mean? Does it mean evidence?
2.When you testify, it means you give evidence against yourself? Is it the same as 'self-incrimination' which is an accusation that incriminates yourself(Is this definition right)?

thanks.
I'll take these in the opposite order. When you testify in court, you answer questions after taking an oath to tell the truth. These answers are taken as evidence in the court proceeding. The questions and answers may be about you or about someone else, although they should be questions that you know the answers to from your own experience, not about things that you have heard from someone else.

What someone says while testifying (see the above paragraph) is testimony. Testimony is one kind of evidence. Other kinds of evidence include, for example, physical evidence, like a fingerprint, and pictures taken by a surveillance camera.

Yes, self-incrimination is making statements that indicate that you are guilty. As I noted earlier, your testimony could say that you are guilty or it could say that someone else is guilty.