"Tell me, be you a witch?": Questions in the salem witchcraft trials of 1692

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law

Volumn 9, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 17-37

  Hiltunen, Risto ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TURKU   (Finland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 3042704968     PISSN: 09528059     EISSN: 15728722     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/BF01130380     Document Type: Article

References (28)

1. D. Kurzon, "Linguistics and Legal Discourse: an Introduction", International Journal for the Semiotics of Law VII/19 (1994), 6.
2. Cf. Y. Maley & R. Fahey, "Presenting the Evidence: Constructions of Reality in Court", International Journal for the Semiotics of Law IV/10 (1991), 3.
3. M. den Boer, "Do Trials have Winners?", International Journal for the Semiotics of Law VI/18 (1993), 294.
4. P. Drew, "Analyzing the Use of Language in Courtroom Interaction", in T. van Dijk, ed., Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Vol. 3 (London: Academic Press, 1985), 133.
5. J. Levi, "The Study of Language in the Judicial Process", in J. Levi & A. G. Walker, eds., Language in the Judicial Process (New York & London: The Plenum Press, 1990), 18-19.
6. Cf. supra n. 4, at 133.
7. Among the most important are: M. Starkey, The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1949; paperback ed. 1969);
8. P. Boyer & S. Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974);
9. J.P. Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture in Early New Enghnd, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982; paperback ed. 1983);
10. B. Rosenthal, Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, paperback en. 1995).
11. Supra n. 7, at 8.
12. K. Erikson, Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance (New York: Wiley & Sons, 1966), 137-159. The picture of the historical course of events has been considerably elaborated on in the later studies mentioned in n. 7 above.
13. P. Boyer & S. Nissenbaum, The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1977), 3 vols.
14. Supra n. 7, at 25.
15. The examples are given throughout in the form they appear in the printed edition, without changing the spelling.
16. The variation between direct and reported discourse is an interesting feature of the examination material in terms of, for example, "voice" and "authority" in the text.
17. In two cases (Candy; Alice Parker), only the beginning of the trial is recorded in direct speech, but they are included here for this very reason (cf. below).
18. Often the records do not make it clear which of the two carried out the questioning, but on the basis of the interrogations where the name of the examining magistrate is indicated, Hathorne appears as the more assertive of the two (cf. Starkey, supra n. 7, at 51).
19. Cf. C. Ilie, What Can I Tell You: A Pragmatic Study of English Rhetorical Questions as Discursive and Argumentative Acts (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1993), 183.
20. For the distinction between information and confirmations seeking questions, cf. Maley & Fahey, supra n. 2, at 5.
21. Cf. R. Quirk, et al., A Grammar of Contemporary English (London: Longman, 1972), 401.
22. Supra n. 7, at 66.
23. Supra n. 16, at 183.
24. Supra n. 10, vol. I, at 248-254.
25. Supra n. 16, at 183.
26. His physical appearance may have had something to do with this. He is described by M. Starkey as "toothless, grey, and so lame that he was able to get about only with the help of two canes." Supra, n. 7, at 195.
27. Supra n. 7, at 24.
28. Supra n. 7, at 21.