Language of Defendants in the 17th-Century English Courtroom : A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis of the Prisoners' Interactional Role and Representation.
Title:
Language of Defendants in the 17th-Century English Courtroom : A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis of the Prisoners' Interactional Role and Representation.
Author:
Cecconi, Elisabetta.
ISBN:
9783035103762
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (240 pages)
Contents:
Table of contents -- Chapter 1 - The 17th-century English courtroom 11 -- 1.1 Objects of analysis and the approach taken 11 -- 1.2 An outline of historical pragmatics and socio-pragmatics 14 -- 1.3 Problems of data and methodologyin historical pragmatics 16 -- 1.4 Primary objectives of the study 20 -- 1.5 A description of my dataset 21 -- 1.6 Features of the 17th-century courtroom 26 -- 1.7 Previous literature in the fieldof EmodE courtroom discourse 38 -- Part one - The interactional role of defendants in 17th-century trial texts -- Chapter 2 - Defendants and professionals: verbal duelling in the arraignment section 49 -- 2.1 Object and aims of the analysis 49 -- 2.2 Theoretical considerations: power and impoliteness 52 -- 2.3 Request-types in the arraignment section 69 -- 2.4 The dynamics of requests in the arraignment section 80 -- 2.5 Conclusion 110 -- Chapter 3 - Defence construction in the evidence phase 113 -- 3.1 Forms of defence 113 -- 3.2 Quantitative and qualitative analysis of representatives and directives 125 -- 3.3 Defence strategies: challenge, redefinition and reconstruction 128 -- 3.4 Conclusion 141 -- Part two - The representation of defendants in treason cases -- Chapter 4 - Representation of defendants as a formof political propaganda 145 -- 4.1 Objects and aims of the analysis 145 -- 4.2 The trial of Thomas Wentworth,earl of Strafford (1641) 148 -- 4.3 The trial of James Duke of Hamiltonand earl of Cambridge (1649) 180 -- 4.4 The trial of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1644) 194 -- 4.5 Conclusion 216 -- Bibliography 221 -- Index 233.
Abstract:
This volume analyses the defence system in the 17th-century English courtroom and sees how defendants attempted to construct their discourse identity and articulate their defence in the arraignment section and in the evidence phase of the trial. Drawing upon theories from socio-pragmatics and (critical) discourse analysis the book investigates the complex face-work dynamics operating between defendants and professionals/witnesses, the main defence strategies adopted in the evidence phase and - at the author-readership discourse level - the way in which Royalist defendants were represented in Royalist accounts in the turbulent years of the Civil War. The author draws on a rich variety of trial texts: from high treason to religious subversion, from murder to felony and misdemeanour. In each case the defendant's discourse behaviour is scrutinised in relation to historical, socio-cultural and institutional variables. In its double focus on the defendants' interactional role in the trial and their representation in Royalist accounts, the book offers a valuable reading for historical courtroom linguists, legal historians and researchers in the field of language, ideology and political propaganda in the early modern period.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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Electronic Access:
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