Formulaic discourse and speech acts in the witchcraft trial records of Salem, 1692

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.