In this paper, I present a sociopragmatic method of analysing historical courtroom interaction, drawing data from Boyer and Nissenbaum’s (1977) Salem Witchcraft Papers. Concentrating as much upon the answers that the magistrates’ questions received as the questions themselves, I complement a grammatical analysis of question-types and their conducivity, with an analysis of responses in terms of Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principle. I argue that (1) the magistrates’ questions appear to take on additional “controlling” and “accusing” functions, and (2) questions that functioned as accusations were particularly difficult to disprove, in part because the magistrates were responsible for “judging” the “legitimacy” of a “reality” their questioning strategy helped to construct. I demonstrate that the Salem magistrates adopted a “guilty but unwilling to confess” paradigm that led them to assume that defendants who maintained their innocence were lying, and then discuss the implications of reality paradigms for Grice’s (1975) theory.
2008. Legal discourse and linguistic incongruities in Bardell vs. Pickwick: an analysis of address and reference strategies in The Pickwick Papers trial scene. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 17:3 ► pp. 205 ff.
Chaemsaithong, Krisda
2011. In Pursuit of an Expert Identity: A Case Study of Experts in the Historical Courtroom. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 24:4 ► pp. 471 ff.
Chaemsaithong, Krisda
2012. Performing self on the witness stand: Stance and relational work in expert witness testimony. Discourse & Society 23:5 ► pp. 465 ff.
2009. Formulaic discourse and speech acts in the witchcraft trial records of Salem, 1692. Journal of Pragmatics 41:3 ► pp. 458 ff.
Grund, Peter
2007. The Anatomy of Correction: Additions, Cancellations, and Changes in the Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Trials1. Studia Neophilologica 79:1 ► pp. 3 ff.
Grund, Peter
2007. FROM TONGUE TO TEXT: THE TRANSMISSION OF THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT EXAMINATION RECORDS. American Speech 82:2 ► pp. 119 ff.
Jucker, A.H.
2006. Historical Pragmatics. In Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, ► pp. 329 ff.
Kahlas-Tarkka, Leena
2012. “I am a Gosple Woman”: On Language in the Courtroom Discourse during the Salem Witch Trials, with Special Reference to Female Examinees. Studia Neophilologica 84:sup1 ► pp. 55 ff.
Khafaga, Ayman
2023. Beyond relational work: a psycho-pragmatic analysis of impoliteness in Shakespeare’s King Lear. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 10:1
2004. Point of View in Drama: A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis of Dennis Potter’s Brimstone and Treacle. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 13:2 ► pp. 139 ff.
McIntyre, Dan
2020. Point of view in drama: a socio-pragmatic analysis of Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle. In The Language and Literature Reader, ► pp. 219 ff.
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