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Article published In:
English Text Construction
Vol. 14:1 (2021) ► pp.25–67

Worlds of evidence

Visualising patterns in witness statements in the aftermath of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster

| University College Utrecht
| University of Chester
| University of Birmingham

The Hillsborough football stadium disaster (1989) in Sheffield, UK, led to the deaths of 97 football fans and resulted in the longest jury case in British legal history (2016). This article examines the witness statements of two Sheffield residents who claim to have attended the match. Using a mixed-methods approach that incorporates a cognitive linguistic framework (Text World Theory) with visualisation software (VUE) we consider both form and function of a number of linguistic features, such as meta-narrative, evaluative lexis, syntax, and modality to investigate how institutional voices permeate and potentially distort layperson narratives. Our analysis casts doubt on the veracity of the statements and raises questions about what can be considered evidential in a forensic investigation.

Keywords: Hillsborough, modality, text world theory, VUE
Article outline
  • 1.The Hillsborough disaster and the context of the V/J witness statements
  • 2.Text World Theory and the notion of the textual discourse-world (tDW)
  • 3.Text-worlds annotation and visualisation of the V/J statements using VUE
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1An overview of ‘worlds’
      • 4.1.1Epistemically strong(er) modal-worlds
      • 4.1.2Weak epistemic commitment
      • 4.1.3Attitudinal modal-worlds
    • 4.2The walk to the ground and the “at-issue” event in the stadium
      • 4.2.1Weaker commitment
      • 4.2.2Attitudinal stance
  • 5.Textual discourse-worlds
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00042.can
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