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Journal of Pragmatics 41 (2009) 458–469 www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma
Formulaic discourse and speech acts in the witchcraft trial records of Salem, 1692 Kathleen L. Doty a,*, Risto Hiltunen b a
Department of English, Humboldt State University, 1 Harpst Street, Arcata, CA 95521, USA b Department of English, University of Turku, Henrikinkatu 2, 20014 Turku, Finland
Received 2 January 2007; received in revised form 3 February 2008; accepted 20 June 2008
Abstract The Salem witchcraft trial documents are utilized in this paper to discuss the relationship of function and form in the expression of speech acts at various stages of the legal process. The notion of form is narrowed down to formulaic discourse, which is one of the distinctive features of legal genres. The results indicate that different speech acts are characteristic of different stages of the legal process. The acts of accusing and charging are foregrounded in the early stages, while those of denial and confession predominate in the later ones. Moreover, the participants, whether witnesses, accused, or representatives of the legal authority, use different discourses in the expression of speech acts, with the legal voices favoring performative actions and standardized formulae as against individuals resorting to a variety of discourse strategies in trying to argue for their case felicitously. # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Speech acts; Formulaic discourse; Trial discourse; Witchcraft trials; Legal language
1. Introduction The Salem witchcraft outbreak in Massachusetts, New England, 1692, is a complex and much studied chapter in early American colonial history. What has made this incident so exceptional and significant is, at least in part, due to the fact that a large number of contemporary, authentic legal documents of various genres survive from the outbreak. The total number of records amounts to almost a thousand items (cf. SWP, 1977). Such a rich material makes it possible to trace the impact of various socio-political, cultural, and legal issues on the emergence and subsequent development of the witchcraft incident in the Puritan community of Salem during the peak of the outbreak in 1692. The copious documentation has given rise to a variety of interpretations (cf. Mappen, 1996). Still today, however, our understanding of the reasons that ultimately threw the community into such turmoil remains somewhat speculative. Explanations offered range from the more general to some very specific ones, including an account based on a complex chain of causes and effects embedded in the social structure of the community (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1974), a gender-based reading of the documents (Karlsen, 1989), and a variety of medical and psychological explanations (see Mappen, 1996:51–82). More recently, the Indian threat arising from the hostilities with Wabanaki Indians in the ‘Eastward’ provinces of New England has been offered as a significant contributing factor (Norton, 2003). In addition, it has been pointed out that it is essential for the understanding the Salem witchcraft incident that it be related it to the * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses:
[email protected] (K.L. Doty),
[email protected] (R. Hiltunen). 0378-2166/$ – see front matter # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2008.06.011
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context of the European witch hunts antedating Salem, for ‘‘Massachusetts in 1692 was, after all, an outpost of Europe and its culture’’ (Thurston, 2007:185–186). The language of the Salem documents, reflecting the multifarious social networks within the Salem community, has also attracted increasing interest among scholars in the last few years (e.g. Archer, 2002; Grund et al., 2004; Doty, 2007; Grund, 2007a,b; Hiltunen and Peikola, 2007; Kahlas-Tarkka and Rissanen, 2007). Such a new strand in Salem scholarship has been stimulated, in part, by the work in progress under Professor Bernard Rosenthal for a new scholarly edition of the entire Salem material (Rosenthal et al., 2008; see Grund et al., 2004:147). The present study will address a specific aspect of the documents that is linguistically prominent, viz. their characteristic preference for formulaic patterns of discourse. Fixed phrases and recurrent formulae are an integral element of legal style. Shaped by a long tradition of legal drafting, they contribute essentially to the ‘‘mannerisms of the language of the law’’ (Mellinkoff, 1963:24ff.), and thereby also to the public image of what legal style is like. In both written and spoken legal contexts, the various formulae are nevertheless considered an essential element of the ritual ceremony that surrounds the execution of many legal documents (see Tiersma, 1999:102ff). In this paper, we are concerned with formulaic discourse as used to convey legal speech acts in the documents. The Salem witchcraft documents represent predominantly legal institutional discourse, but there is some hybridity involved in many of them. That the voice of the legal authority should be present, in one way or another, in all documents is to be expected. Some genres are typically written in formal legalese throughout, while others contain ‘language reports’ (Thompson, 1996) of voices of other participants. Even in such contexts, however, particular sections, such as openings and closings, are typically expressed in formal legal style. The hybrid nature of the documents is indicated by, for instance, the traits of religious discourse in many of them, e.g. in the form of Biblical allusions and references to religious symbols, as well as personal statements of faith and religious conviction. On the other hand, outside the legal context there must also have existed less formal ways of talking about witchcraft and its consequences in the community. That such interactive situations should often have amounted to gossiping and slandering of neighbors is also a plausible hypothesis (cf. Norton, 2003:7 and passim). The fact that the evidence of the existence of such a layer of discourse is indirect rather than direct is to a great extent explained by scribal interference. Since the legal context favored matter-of-fact reporting, most individual traits of usage would have been silently suppressed from getting into the records by the recording scribes. 2. Data and functions The Salem documents represent several written genres, including warrants, examination records, indictments, depositions, and petitions. In this paper, we will primarily be concerned with formulaic discourse in the institutional legal layer of the documents. We will look at two genres more closely, viz. depositions and indictments. Chronologically, depositions precede indictments in the legal process. Linguistically, there are interesting similarities and differences between the two genres. In depositions, we hear the voice of the questioning magistrates and the deponents themselves, and sometimes also that of the recorder, while in indictments the institutional voice prevails throughout. In the final section of the paper, we will also briefly consider a set of examination records in the light of formulaic discourse in a context that is the most clearly interactive in the material. The surviving examination records are those based on the preliminary hearings of the accused, which technically precede both indictments and depositions in the legal process. As observed above, much of legal discourse relies on pre-established patterns of expression based on conventions that have stood the test of time. One of the primary functions of such conventions is to communicate acts, such as ordering, charging, and passing a verdict. In law, conducting such acts successfully tends to be closely tied up with ritualistic, formulaic diction. In a paper addressing aspects of ritual communication, Lu¨ger (1983:695) points out that the dependence of verbal activity on convention touches various levels, from simple syntactic–semantic rules to complex behavioral expectations (e.g. certain communication patterns). Convention and the individuality of expression constitute a communicative continuum. Depending on the context, both may be equally necessary for successful communication. Among the Salem genres, there are some (e.g. indictments) that have a form that is conventionalized almost to the extent of being frozen. Correspondingly, there are genres showing a fairly high degree of individuality and personal involvement in the discourse, such as depositions and examination records. In both of these, the sections containing elements of individuality are framed by ritualistic legal formulae. In depositions, the core of the documents consists of
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a narrative account by the deponent, while in examination records, the individual components are flanked by standard questions put forward by the examining magistrate according to pre-determined procedures and associated schemata of expressions. The continuum from indictments to examination records also reflects the degree of speech-relatedness between the documents. Indictments represent formal written legal discourse, while the examinations recorded in direct discourse supposedly reflect the turns ‘verbatim’, as actually spoken at the trials. Naturally, due to a variety of interfering factors, the verbatimness has to be interpreted in a relative sense (cf. Grund et al., 2004:151; Doty, 2007). Many examinations are also recorded entirely in indirect discourse, but there are also many that contain passages in both varieties of reporting (see Hiltunen, 2004:6–15). In functional terms, conventionality provides a means of upholding the institutional power that the document represents. Therefore, it is to be expected that hardly any traits of individuality are likely to be tolerated in such a context, as this might undermine the institutional credibility of the document. This situation is most clearly in evidence in the indictments, which we will turn to next. 3. Indictments There are altogether 81 indictments in the Salem data (Grund et al., 2004:149). The act conveyed by an indictment is one charging the suspect for a criminal behavior. It is a technical document specifying a particular technical procedure. Indictments are based on a formal accusation by the victim to a local magistrate. The act of accusing would normally have been recorded in a deposition prior to indicting. Based on depositional evidence, the magistrate was bound by duty to call in the suspected witch and question him or her, producing a documentary record of what the suspect had said. The questioning constituted the examination. The suspect, having been accused of the serious crime of witchcraft, would then be referred to a trial by a criminal court. In Salem this court, called The Court of Oyer and Terminer, was set up in late May 1692 to deal with burgeoning witchcraft cases. The court had to decide whether there was a case of witchcraft to be answered or not. If not, the indictment was marked ‘‘Ignoramus’’, indicating that no further action would be taken (cf. Gibson, 2003:9). More often than not, however, the court in Salem found that there was indeed a case to be answered, in which case the indictment was marked ‘‘Billa vera’’, a ‘‘true bill’’, indicating that the case would be passed to the court itself to be tried. This marking was not, however, systematically carried out in Salem. The examination records of the Court of Oyer and Terminer have not survived. 3.1. Structure The indictments, like depositions, have a three-part structure: Opening, called ‘‘commencement’’ by Parmiter (1961), Statement, and Conclusion, as indicated in the example below, the Indictment v. Martha Carier[sic], No. 2 (SWP, 187): Structure Opening - date - place
Text Anno Regis et Reginae Willm et Mariae nunc Angliae &c Quarto: Essex ss
Statement - name of accused & personal details - time of offence
The Jurors of our Sovereigne Lord and Lady the King and Queen: pr’sents That Martha Carrier wife of #[Richard] Thomas Carier of Andover in the county of Essex husbandman the 31 Day of May in the forth year of the Reigne of our Sovereigne Lord and Lady William and Mary by the Grace of God of England Scottland france and Ireland King and Queen Defenders of the faith: &c And Divers other Dayes and Times as well before as after, certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcrafts: and Sorceries, Wickedly and feloniously hath used Practised and Excercised at and within the Towneship of Salem in the County of Essex afores’d in and
- type of offence - place of offence
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- name of victim - time of offence - details of offence Conclusion
Billa vera
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upon and ag’t one Elizabeth Hubbard of Salem in the County of Essex afores’d by which said Wicked Arts. the said Elizabeth Hubbard the thirty first Day of May in the forth Year aboves’d and Divers other Dayes, and times, as well before as after was and is Tortured Afflicted Pined Consumed Wasted and Tormented ag’t the Peace of our Sovereigne Lord and Lady the King and Queen: and ag’t the forme of the Statute in that case made and Provided Witnesses Elizabeth Hubbard Jurat. Mary Walcutt Jurat. Ann Putnam Mary Warren Jurat. (Reverse) bila vera No. 2 Martha Carier
The Opening consists of a formal statement of date and venue. The date is provided in the form of a phrase in Latin, Anno Regis et Renginæ Willm et Mariæ nuc Angliæ &c Quarto, i.e ‘In the fourth year of the reign of William and Mary, King and Queen of England, etc.’ The venue is indicated as Essex ss. The function of the opening formula is to establish that the court trying the indictment has authority to do so. The Statement is designed to set out everything that the accused person is charged with. It does this by providing a summary of the relevant facts and circumstances which constitute the crime charged. Legally, it is important that these points are set out in the statement correctly and with certainty (hence the use of the indicative mood). The details about the accused, the offence, and the victim are given by means of specific formulaic phrases. The description of the offence against the victim is a particularly good example of this, cf. the said Elizabeth Hubbard [. . .] is Tortured Afflicted Pined Consumed Wasted and Tormented [. . .]. Once adopted, such patterns became part of the standard and were repeated across the indictments. The indictment ends with a Conclusion specifying that the offence is a breach against the peace of the King and Queen as well as the relevant statute of the law. It is expressed in the standard wording as: ag’t the Peace of our Sovereigne Lord and Lady the King and Queen: and ag’t the forme of the Statute in that case made and Provided. 3.2. Textual building blocks An analysis of the text suggests that it is put together of prefabricated set formulations, which have their individual and distinct phraseology. The major speech act of charging is realized in the form of the performative pr’sents at the beginning of the text. The content of the charge is conveyed in the form of the Statement section. For the act of charging to be performed felicitously it is essential that it is performed completely in agreement with the requirements of the genre. In a strict legal interpretation, failure to reproduce a formula correctly, let alone missing an entire phrase, might run the risk of the charge being dropped on formal grounds. Although it is difficult to know whether the risk was that absolute in Salem, it is still obvious that careful drafting of the documents was essential. The fact that lexical variations in the wording of the indictments across the whole material are very small is also indicative of the importance of getting the phrasing of the documents exactly right. It is obvious from the original manuscripts that in Salem great care was taken in the advance preparation of indictments. In contrast with some of the other document genres, such as depositions, the writing of indictments seems to have been entrusted to a few scribes (cf. Hiltunen and Peikola, 2007:62). The formal, elaborate handwriting of the scribes further adds to the prestige and authoritativeness of the text. It seems that most of the Salem indictments were written in two stages. First, a ‘template’ of the document was prepared, with bank spaces reserved for details to be filled in concerning the name of the accused and the accuser as well as the date of the offence to be supplied by the magistrate who drew up the final indictment (see further Grund et al., 2004:149; Hiltunen and Peikola, 2007:62). In the document above, the change of hands is indicated in boldface for the text of the filling scribe. Interestingly, indictments may still today follow the practice of leaving blank spaces for information to be supplied whenever an indictment is
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being drawn up. In terms of readability, it is precisely the personal details of those concerned that make up the most crucial information for anybody reading the document. The permanent part of the text provides merely a frame for the presentation of the new information. Because the frame remains unchanged, it can be readily glossed over by any experienced reader of the document. 3.3. Variation As indicated above, it lies in the nature of the indictments that they have a fixed form. By and large, this holds for the Salem indictments. However, some variation in the wording does occur. It is of two kinds, involving (a) individual words and phrases, and (b) the content of the text. Both points can be illustrated with another example, the Indictment v. Edward Farrington, No. 1 (SWP, 325): Structure Opening
Text Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Essex ss//
Statement
The Jurors for o’r Sov’r Lord & lady the King & Queen Present That Edward Farington of Andivor in the County of Essex afors’d Above fouer or five years Since, In the Towne of Anduor aforesaid Wickedly Mallitiously & felloniously A Covenant with the Devill did Make & was Baptised by the Devill & unto him Renounced his first Baptizme & promised to be the Devills both Soul & body for ever, And to Serve the devill & Signed the Devills Booke; By which Diabol-licall Covenant by him with the Devill Made In Maner & forme
- covenant
Conclusion
Anno’qe RRs & Reginae Gulielmi & Mariae Angliae &c Quarto Anno’qe Dom. 1692
aforesaid – The Said Edward Farington is become a detestable Witch Against the peace of o’r Soveraigne lord & lady the King & Queen their Crowne & dignity & the Laws in that Case made & provided Wittness his owne Confesion –
This document differs substantially from the Carrier indictment above. For example, the Opening uses the Latin form of the name Gulielmi instead of William, and the Statement has the verb form present instead of presents. Similarly, instead of the standard phrase wickedly & felloniously used in the Carrier document, the Farrington one has Wickedly Mallitiously & felloniously. There is also variation in the Conclusion, for the standard phrase ag’t the Peace of our Sovereigne Lord and Lady the King and Queen of the Carrier document is modified by adding their Crowne & dignity in the Farrington one. In the final part of the closing formula, the Carrier document refers to the forme of the Statute, where the Farrington one has the Laws. Such instances of seemingly minor variation may have arisen in the process of copying or they may be due to different model indictments having been used as exemplars for the two documents (for possible models among the 16th and 17th century legal manuals, see Grund, 2007b:12–13). In this particular case they may also be due to the document having been written out from memory, as the text is in a single hand and lacks the usual empty spaces for personal details to be supplied at a later stage. There is also more substantial variation. For example, the Farrington document mentions no actual accuser by name. Instead the indictment refers to a covenant that was made between the indictee and the Devil. This type of indictment is apparently based on the confession of the person in question, as indicated at the end of the document Witness his owne Confesion. Such indictments represent an interesting minority in the material (13 instances in all). It is noteworthy that, for most persons (eight cases) for whom there is a confession-based indictment referring to the Devil’s pact, there also exists a standard indictment based on an accusation by another person (for such an indictment for Edward Farrington, see SWP, 325). There are only five cases (Tituba, Mary Toothaker, Mary Taylor, Mary Wardwell, Abigail Hobbs) where only the confession-indictment survives. It is likely, however, that for these too a standard indictment existed, but is now lost.
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4. Depositions 4.1. Prototypical phrases and formulae This study examines a total of 181 individual depositions, which are part of the case records for 41 individuals accused of witchcraft between March and September 1692. The depositions utilize both legal and genre-specific language in quite similar ways. For purposes of this analysis, depositions will be understood to have three distinct sections: 1. An Opening formulaic, legalistic clause introducing the individual and establishing the validity of what follows; 2. A Narrative, usually in the first person, describing the details against the accused; 3. The Closing, referring to the legal and official nature of the written document. Beginning with the word ‘‘deposition’’ itself, that most records used, it suggests that the legal function of the term was foremost in the minds of the scribes. In the majority of the records, the opening pattern follows a three-part formula (elements in parenthesis are optional) as shown below: (1)
(The) deposition of name (details about age, place of residence, marital status) (who) {testifieth and saith/said saith/said testifieth}
The testimonial nature of the language and the document is reflected in this formula, with the phrase testifieth and saith being the most common, occurring in 149 of 181 records (82%). Saith and testifieth follow, with saith occurring in 18 records (9%) and testifieth appearing in 10 records (5%). An example of the Opening formula and the Narrative is seen in the next example: (2)
The deposition of Eliz: Hubburd agged about 17 year who testifieth and saith that I have been along time afflected by a woman that tould me hir name was Carrier and that she came from Andevore but on the 31: May 1692 martha Carrier did most greviously tortor me dureing the time of hir Examination for if she did but look upon me she would strick me down or almost choak me and also I saw martha Carrier most greviously tormet Mary Walcott. . . (SWP, 195)
What we term the Opening contains a legalistic clause which announces that what is to come are the ‘‘verbatim’’ words of the deponent. The deponent’s words thus have the legal status of official testimony. The Narratives given are quite varied in style and content, but most are presented in the first person and use informal, idiomatic language. There are few, if any, legal phrases or terms used in the narratives. The third section of the deposition, the Closing, always employs phraseology that reinforces the legal status of the document. Usually the language refers to either or both of the following: 1. The submission of evidence (the deposition) to the grand jury, using the Latin phrase ‘‘Jurat in Curia’’; 2. Reference to an oath the deponent has taken attesting to the truth of the statements. Examples of Closings include the following: (3) (4)
(5)
ann putnam ownid before the grand Inquest this har evidens to be the truth one the oath that she hath taken: this: 8 day of September 1692 (Mary Bradbury, SWP, 122) Sworne by Thomas Gage Salem Village May, 2[0th 1692] before us *John Hathorne *Jonathan Corwin Assists (Roger Toothaker, SWP, 773) Elizabeth Hubburd: owned: the above written evidence: to be the truth: to the Jury of Inquest:upon: the oath:she hath taken: July 1: 1692 Jurat in Curia (Martha Carrier, SWP, 195)
Additionally, many records contain the deponent’s signature or mark (if the deponent was illiterate). Of the 181 depositions, there are 40 records (22%) which have no formulaic closing at all. Reasons for this are open to speculation and may be the result of the date the deposition was written, the idiosyncrasies of the scribe, missing or faulty
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transcription of the original manuscripts, and so forth. Regardless of these records with only a two-part structure, 85 percent of the depositions follow the three-part form. 4.2. Functions of phrases and formulae For depositions, the various functions are most visible in the patterns of the Openings and Closings. The asymmetrical power dynamics inherent in the Salem witchcraft trials are most often signaled by the legal words and phrases in the opening and closing. Words such as deposition, Jurat in Curia, and so forth signal the legal context and the involvement of persons with different degrees of power and status. That these depositions were given before magistrates and court officials is not insignificant. The giving of a deposition was a serious matter for the inhabitants of Salem village for not only were the specific details of the accusations important but also the fact that there was to be a written record increased the importance of the context and content. The use of legal terminology reinforces both the power dynamics between the participants and the inherent force that written documents carried with them in seventeenth century colonial America. Power is also closely tied into the speech act function of the phrases. For instance, the use of testifieth and saith, saith, or do testify in the openings are past tense representations of direct speech acts used by the deponent. Since the great majority of the depositions then shift immediately into first person narrative descriptions, we can view the depositions as ‘‘frozen’’ speech acts. It is as if the scribes were committed to both the legal opening phrase and the first person narration in order to emphasize the performative nature of the testimony. The standard Austinian ‘‘hereby’’ (Austin, 1962:57) could be easily inserted before any of the opening phrases (testify, testifieth and saith, etc.) in order to emphasize its performative nature. However, there was only one record that actually included hereby. The closing formulae also make reference to a variety of performative speech act verbs, such as swear, testify, own, as well as mentioning the deponent having taken an oath, which is itself a performative speech act. So while these speech act verbs are reported in the past tense rather than rendered directly, the language nonetheless retains traces of its performative function. The final two functions, duplication and signals of text structure, are also apparent in the opening and closing phrases or formulae. As mentioned above, the repetition of testifieth and saith, as well as giving the deponent’s name, age and place of residence are used in the majority of the records examined. The only part of the deposition record that varies is the narrative itself and even those show some interesting similarities (though the details are well beyond the scope of this paper). The opening and closing patterns establish a pre-set legal frame and provide a ready method of organizing the information and details given by the deponent. Turning now to two examples of depositions, viz. the cases of Martha Carrier and George Burroughs, both wellknown figures in Salem and in the witchcraft crisis, we can see that both cases are representative in the light of the depositional material they contain. The language and function of the depositions for Carrier and Burroughs conform to the patterns described above, especially the three-part structure of opening, narrative, and closing. There are 10 depositions for Carrier and 16 for Burroughs. The use of formulaic patterns in these depositions follows the trends identified in the larger set described above. While the legal formulaic language of the depositions’ openings and closings is obvious, the functionality of the documents is also seen in the Narrative section. The Narratives are the place where the function of speech acts becomes most prevalent. Using Searle’s (1969) speech act perspective, we can see how the testimonial nature of the deposition is expanded from being simply a written piece of sworn testimony. The entire deposition can be viewed as a kind of ritualistic speech event, but the narrative section presents the claims that have real-world consequences for the accused. The narrative section contains the ‘‘implicit performatives,’’ the term used by Austin to delineate those assertions that do not contain explicit performatives (Austin, 1962:32). The deposition’s narratives, for example, are presented in the first person, but with both present and past tense verbs as shown in this example from the deposition of Mary Walcott v. Martha Carrier: (6)
I have ben a long time afflected by a woman which tould me hir name was Carrier and that she came from Andevor but on the 31’th May 1692: martha Carrier of Andever did most greviously tormet me during the time of hir Examination by biting pricking pinching and all most Choaking me to death for if she did but look upon me she would strike me down or allmost Choak me to death. . .. I believe in my heart that Martha carrier is a most dreadfull wicth and that she hath tormented me and the parsons affore named by hir acts of wicthcraf (SWP, 195)
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The illocutionary force, usually understood to be the intent associated with an utterance, of the deposition becomes one of accusation. The legal frame (the Opening and Closing) supports the force. The legal frame also underscores the felicity conditions of the situation; that is, the participants and the conditions are appropriate to the act, which has been executed completely and correctly according to the current legal precepts. In the example above, it is clear that the deposition’s illocutionary force is one of accusation and, by extension, one of damnation to a possible death. Some of the phrases, such as did most greviously tormet me, I beleve in my heart, and she hath tormented me indicate the performative nature of Mary Walcott’s words though they shift between present and past tense. As we study below the examination records, the similarities of these narrative sections to the narratives contained within the examination will become apparent. 5. Examinations Our earlier study of examination records (Doty and Hiltunen, 2002) contained analysis of 29 records. Five of the nine we include in this paper were included in that study, though analyzed from a different perspective. In this paper we are interested in the formulaic nature of the speech acts in the examination records and we have selected nine as representative: four of the accused individuals maintain their innocence and thus they were eventually hanged. Five individuals confessed and by confessing saved their lives. All of the nine records are presented in direct discourse. All examination records exhibit one of three structural patterns, governed by the presence or absence of a confession: 1. accusation ! denial, 2. accusation ! confession, and 3. accusation ! denial ! confession.
5.1. Denials The cases of Bridget Bishop, Martha Carrier, Martha Corey, and Rebecca Nurse provide examples of how denials were structured in the early months of the crisis. In general, the examinations of these accused individuals follow the same ritualistic pattern: the magistrates ask questions of the person and they answer directly, in an assertive manner. Each woman denies the accusations of witchcraft and asserts her innocence. They use a variety of illocutionary acts— all constatives in the taxonomy of Bach and Harnish (1979:41 and passim)—which assert their beliefs and their innocence. Note the following representative examples from the examination of Rebecca Nurse (SWP, 584–585): (7)
(8)
Goody Nurse, here are two An: Putman the child & Abigail Williams complains of your hurting them What do you say to it I can say before my Eternal father I am innocent, & God will clear my innocency Here are these 2 grown persons now accuse you, w’t say you? Do not you see these afflicted persons, & hear them accuse you. The Lord knows I have not hurt them: I am an innocent person
On occasion an accused person would make an assertion that can also be read as an accusatory retort to the magistrate, as in exchanges 9–12 from the examination of Martha Carrier (SWP, 185): (9) (10) (11) (12)
What black man did you see? I saw no black man but your own presence You see you look upon them & they fall down It is false the Devil is a liar. Do you not see them? If I do speak you will not believe me? You lye. I am wronged.
In examples (9), (11) and (12), Carrier responds to the magistrates with you in utterances that either question or offer a direct contradiction to the words of the magistrates. In both (10) and (12), she defends herself by linking the devil and the magistrate together as liars, a verbal thrust that was considered unusual for a woman in Salem Village, but
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yet fit the image of Carrier offered up by bitter and jealous neighbors (Karlsen, 1989:100). Since she maintained her innocence and refused to confess to any acts of witchcraft, she was hanged on August 19, 1692. The unusual practice of saving those who confessed, but sending those to the gallows who did not, was in accordance with the code adopted in Salem (see further Rosenthal, 1993:151–152). 5.2. Confessions The examination records that contain individuals confessing to the accusations of witchcraft have two patterns. The overall structure of the examinations is similar—first there are questions about the guilt of the accused, then the accused readily confesses, or the accused first denies the accusations but eventually confesses. Once there is a confession, utterances of repentance often occur. The section of the examination record that details the confession is noteworthy here since it is in these ‘‘narrative details’’ that various ritualized speech acts occurs. Formulaic speech act patterns typically arise after a confession, when defendants voice accusations of witchcraft against other persons in trying to justify their own behavior in the eyes of the court. These confessional utterances may also be seen as a type of apology within Bach and Harnish’s classification of Acknowledgments. Such acknowledging acts, what Austin called ‘‘behabitives’’ and Searle categorized as ‘‘expressives,’’ are expected behaviors within specific contexts and may not exhibit genuine feeling as much as they meet a social expectation (Bach and Harnish, 1979:51–52). In the Salem cases, it came to be understood that a proper and credible confession would include overt words of contrition, asking for forgiveness, references to scripture or God, and so forth. In the records containing confessions, the examining magistrates first try to establish that the accused is guilty of witchcraft. Depending on the answer to this question, the procedure will either be to try to obtain more evidence that the person is in fact guilty or, if the person has confessed, to go into the details of the witchcraft-related actions of that person in a narrative that is idiolectal and varied (much as those in the depositions were varied). After a brief look at the structure of the examinations, our focus will be on the ritualistic speech acts of the accused in these narrative sections (for a detailed discussion of the examiners’ strategies in questioning the accused and eliciting information from them, see Archer, 2002; Doty and Hiltunen, 2002). 5.2.1. Structural patterns (a) From accusation to confession In these records, the accused immediately admits that she or he is guilty of witchcraft. For example, in the case of Abigail Hobbs, her confession is framed as a statement of repentance: (13)
What say you? Are you guilty, or not? Speak the truth. I will speak the truth. I have seen sights and been scared. I have been very wicked. I hope I shall be better, if God will help me. (SWP, 405)
Showing repentance is a way of asking to be forgiven, and it proves to be an important element in establishing the credibility of the confessional statement by the accused. It is essentially a commissive act intended to convince the court that the evil deeds of witchcraft were a mistake and they will never be repeated again. Further strategies introduced by the accused for the same purpose include, for example, accusing other persons of witchcraft and blaming the devil as the ultimate agent for falling into the trap of witchcraft. Such defensive arguments typically aim at minimising the involvement of self and maximising the involvement of others. (b) From accusation to confession through denial In the earliest trials (March–May), the confession is preceded by a denial of the charge in all cases but one, that of Abigail Hobbs, as noted above. The denials in direct speech tend to be categorical at first, e.g. (14)
(H) Titibe what evil spirit have you familiarity with? (T) none (H) why do you hurt these children (T) I do not hurt them (SWP, 748)
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Gradually, as a result of persistent questions, often deliberately formulated in such a way as leading the defendant to giving a desired answer, the accused will begin to concede. This phase of the examination usually consists of a step-bystep process, where the defendant will admit one detail at a time, until the prosecution is satisfied that the confession is sufficiently comprehensive. Sometimes this takes a number of turns to complete. 5.3. Acts of confession Once the accused has confessed, there occurs a series of questions and answers that detail the acts of witchcraft. Tituba, the first person to be examined, sets an example for future confessions with her controlled strategy of responding to the questioning of the magistrates. She first denies the charges, admitting heir involvement only gradually. She identifies the devil as the cause of her misfortune (SWP, 747): (15)
(H) why do you hurt these children (T) I do not hurt them (H) who is it then (T) the devil for ought I know (H) did you never see the devil (T) the devil came to me and bid me serve him
By attributing the devil as seducer and a powerful agent who made Tituba become his servant, we have the first of three ritual acts that appear in the confessions: (1) blaming the devil; (2) cooperating with authorities by giving information and details about events and actions of the self and others; (3) showing repentance, which often uses set phrases of a religious nature. Though Tituba’s examination record contains direct examples of the first two strategies only, her examination nonetheless sets a pattern followed by the majority of confessions (see Doty and Hiltunen, 2002:314–316). The acts of cooperating with authorities and showing repentance is governed by the form of the magistrates’ questions to the accused and by the desire to provide details that will render the confession credible and believable. In the examination of Abigail Hobbs on April 19, 1692, the following exchanges take place (SWP, 405–406). (16)
What did he saye to you? He said he would give me fine things, if I did what he would have me. What did he have you do? Why, he would have me be a witch. Would he have you make a covenant w’th him? Yes. And did you make a covenant with him? Yes, I did, but I hope God will forgive me. The Lord give you Repentance.
(17)
What were they like? Like a cat. What would the cat have you do? She had a book and would have me put my hand to it. And did you? No, I did not. Well, tell the truth, did you at any other time? Yes, I did that time at the Eastward. What other creatures did you see? I saw things like men.
In these examples, Hobbs gives out various details about her behavior, answering the questions with simple declarative utterances. These details concern words of the devil, agreeing to a covenant by signing the devil’s book, and seeing creatures that are assumed to be witches in the forms of cats, men, and so forth.
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A final example of cooperation on the part of the accused by naming other individuals as witches is readily apparent in the examination of Mary Warren on May 12, 1692. In example 18 (SWP, 800–801), Warren, a servant in the household of Elizabeth and John Proctor, accuses her employers and then other women in the village. She and the magistrate first discuss a ‘‘poppett’’ (a doll made of cloth) that allegedly was used in witchcraft by sticking pins into it. (18)
Q. whoe brought the last to you?– An. my mistris & when she brought itt, she brought itt in hir owne person & hir husband w’th his owne hands brought me the Book to Sighne, & he brought me an Image w’ch looked yellow & I beleive itt was for Abigall Williams being like hir & I putt a thing like a thorne into itt, this was done by his bodily person after I had sighned the night after I had sighned the book. . . Q. Whoe have you sene more? An. Nurse and Cloys and Goods Child after I had sighned.
Mary Warren readily answers the magistrates’ questions, providing both details and names of others she claims are witches, all of which would render her words credible and powerful enough to contribute to the death of those she names who did not confess (Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor). The account typically consists of an itemized sequence of events that is both narrated in a ritualistic fashion and describes a particular ritual of witchcraft. 6. Conclusion The above discussion of indictments, depositions, and examination records of the Salem witchcraft documents has focused on the interplay between form and function in the light of how particular speech acts of legal nature are expressed by means of characteristic formulae in such documents. Different speech acts are relevant to different stages of the legal process and its different participants, whether representatives of the legal authority, the witnesses testifying against alleged witches, or the accused trying to defend themselves. Thus, for example, charging a person for witchcraft is typically an act initiated at an early stage and recorded in the form of witness depositions. Formal charges in the form of indictments are a later development, issued if there is sufficient evidence to believe that the person is indeed guilty. On the other hand, the acts of denying the charge or confessing to it are typically associated with the oral examinations of the accused. At the same time, the three genres studied here illustrate the continuum ranging from expressions of established legal convention to more individualised phrasing. The indictments are situated towards the formal end of the continuum. They show a fully fledged use of formulaic written discourse, allowing only minimal variation in the wording of the documents. Towards the other end of the continuum, we have the examination records, where the voices of individual accused persons find their characteristic expressions of denial or confession, as the case may be, in the presence of the examining magistrates. In-between the two, we find the depositions, which typically contain narrative accounts by individual deponents, sandwiched between a conventional legal frame reflecting the institutional prestige of the documents. The speech act verbs in many narrative sections in the deposition appear as constatives due to the documents having been recorded in reported discourse. This also holds for many examination records, but those that exist in direct discourse indicate a variety of strategies utilized by the accused for achieving the act of denying the charge or coming up with a credible confession. References Archer, Dawn, 2002. Can innocent people be guilty? A sociopragmatic analysis of examination transcripts from the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 3 (1), 1–30. Austin, John L., 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Bach, Kent, Harnish, Robert M., 1979. Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Boyer, Paul, Nissenbaum, Stephen, 1974. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA. Doty, Kathleen L., 2007. Telling tales: the role of scribes in constructing the discourse of the Salem witchcraft trials. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 8 (1), 25–41. Doty, Kathleen L., Hiltunen, Risto, 2002. ‘I will tell, I will tell’: confessional patterns in the Salem witchcraft trials, 1692. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 3 (2), 299–335. Gibson, Marion (Ed.), 2003. Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550–1750. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
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Grund, Peter, Kyto¨, Merja, Rissanen, Matti, 2004. Editing the Salem witchcraft records: an exploration of a linguistic treasury. American Speech 79 (2), 146–166. Grund, Peter, 2007a. From tongue to text: the transmission of the Salem witchcraft examination records. American Speech 82 (2), 119–150. Grund, Peter, 2007b. The anatomy of correction: additions, cancellations, and changes in the documents of the Salem witchcraft trials. Studia Neophilologica 79, 3–24. Hiltunen, Risto, 2004. Salem 1692: a case of courtroom discourse in a historical perspective. In: Hiltunen, Risto, Watanabe, Shinichiro (Eds.), Approaches to Style and Discourse in English. Osaka University Press, Osaka, pp. 3–21. Hiltunen, Risto, Peikola, Matti, 2007. Trial discourse and manuscript context: scribal profiles in the Salem witchcraft records. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 8 (1), 43–68. Kahlas-Tarkka, Leena, Rissanen, Matti, 2007. The sullen and the talkative: discourse strategies in the Salem examinations. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 8 (1), 1–24. Karlsen, Carol F., 1989. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. Vintage Books, New York. Lu¨ger, Heinz-Helmut, 1983. Some aspects of ritual communication. Journal of Pragmatics 7, 695–711. Mappen, Marc, 1996. Witches and Histories: Interpretations of Salem, 2nd ed. Krieger, Malabar, FL. Mellinkoff, David, 1963. The Language of the Law. Little, Brown and Company, Boston/Toronto. Norton, Mary Beth, 2003. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. Vintage Books, New York. Parmiter, Geoffreyde C., 1961. Tudor indictments, illustrated by the indictment of St. Thomas More. Recusant History 6, 141–156. Rosenthal, Bernard, 1993. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA. Rosenthal, Bernard, Adams, Gretchen, Burns, Margo, Grund, Peter, Hiltunen, Risto, Kyto¨, Merja, Peikola, Matti,. Ray, Benjamin C, Rissanen, Matti, Roach, Marilynne, K., Trask, Richard (Eds.), 2008. The Records of The Salem Witch Hunt, 1692. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming. Searle, John R., 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. SWP=Boyer, Paul, Nissenbaum, Stephen (Eds.), 1977. The Salem Witchcraft Papers, vols. I–III. Da Capo Press, New York. Thompson, Geoff, 1996. Voices in the text: discourse perspectives on language reports. Applied Linguistics 17, 501–530. Thurston, Robert, 2007. The Witch Hunts: A History of the Witch Persecutions in Europe and North America. Pearson, Harlow. Tiersma, Peter M., 1999. Legal Language. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Dr Kathleen L Doty is a professor in the Department of English at Humboldt State University (Arcata, CA, USA). She teaches in the areas of general English linguistics, sociolinguistics, and modern literature. Her recent research interests include the Salem witchcraft materials and linguistic approaches to literary texts. Dr Risto Hiltunen is Professor of English at the University of Turku, Finland. His research interests include history of English, historical linguistics and discourse studies, especially legal discourse.