Standardization and entextualization of witness depositions
(18th and 19th century)

Funded by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
In collaboration with Universiteit Antwerpen
PhD researcher: Magda Serwadczak
2021 – 2024
Supervisors: Rik Vosters (VUB) & Mieke Vandenbroucke (UAntwerpen)

The proposed project sets out to investigate the entextualization and standardization processes in 18th and 19th century witness depositions and suspect interrogations used in trial cases held at Flemish courts. Additionally, it aims to advance our understanding of institutional discourse from a diachronic perspective and explore different facets of credibility in historical courtroom proceedings. The material for the study contains originally speech-based depositions committed to paper by legal scribes and used as such for the case decision-making.

The first part of the project entails an in-depth study of orality and literacy markers (Biber 1988, Chafe & Tannen 1987, Rutten & van der Wal 2014). By using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, we hope to determine whether the written depositions are credible in reflecting the spoken interaction of the actual interrogation.

For the second study, we analyze linguistic variables used to mark argumentative discourse intended to persuade the addressee (such as modal verbs, suasive verbs and conditional subordinators) and frame our findings against the background of source credibility construction (McCroskey & Young 1981, Whitehead 1968). This will allow us to explore the strategies used by speakers to establish and validate their own credibility as reporters of facts.

The third and final part of the project investigates epistemic evidentiality and aims to answer the question about the credibility of information provided by the witnesses. We set out to establish the sources of information the speakers rely on and analyze the evidential marking used to carry out different pragmatic functions.

Ultimately, we hope to arrive at a more fine-grained picture of entextualization and standardization processes and shed more light on the institutional discourse in the 18th and 19th century Flanders.

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Image credit: Bibliothèque Nationale de France – Brissot et 20 de ses complices condamnés à mort par le tribunal révolutionnaire.