Questions and Answers in the English Courtroom (1640–1760)

A sociopragmatic analysis

Author

Dawn Archer | University of Central Lancashire

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027253781 (Eur) | EUR 125.00

ISBN 9781588116369 (USA) | USD 188.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027294432 | EUR 125.00 | USD 188.00

This book belongs to the rapidly growing field of historical pragmatics. More specifically, it aims to lend definition to the area of historical sociopragmatics. It seeks to enhance our understanding of the language of the historical courtroom by documenting changes to the discursive roles of the most active participant groups of the English courtroom (e.g. the judges, lawyers, witnesses and defendants) in the period 1640–1760. Although the primary focus is on questions and answers, this book also analyses the use of eliciting and non-eliciting devices (e.g. requests and commands) as a means of demonstrating similarities and differences over time. Particular strengths of this work include the study of different types of trial, making the results potentially more representative of the courtroom in general, and the innovative discourse analytic approach, which blends corpus methodology and sociopragmatic analysis, thereby enabling the quantitative analysis of functional phenomena.

[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 135] 2005. xiv, 374 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.135

Table of Contents

1. Investigating the English historical courtroom | pp. 1–21

2. The characteristics of questions and answers | pp. 23–71

3. Questioning procedures in courtrooms | pp. 73–104

4. A systematic approach to context identification and analysis | pp. 105–134

5. Questions in the historical courtroom (1640–1760) | pp. 135–163

6. Interactional intent of participants’ utterances | pp. 165–174

7. Judicial examiners’ questioning strategies | pp. 175–197

8. Lawyers’ questioning strategies (1640–1760) | pp. 199–221

9. Defendants’ strategies (1640–1670) | pp. 223–244

10. Witnesses’ ‘answering’ strategies (1640–1760) | pp. 245–266

11. Courtroom interaction in the historical period: More than 'questions' and 'answers' | pp. 267–280

12. Concluding comments | pp. 281–293

Notes | pp. 295–307

Appendices | pp. 309–235

Index | pp. 365–372

“Archer's book can be a very useful one, for those interested in historical linguistics and for those with a background and interest in the history of law.”

Book Digest Vol. V, Nr. 2 (2005)

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