Part of
Pragmatic Markers in Irish EnglishEdited by Carolina P. Amador-Moreno, Kevin McCafferty and Elaine Vaughan
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 258] 2015
► pp. 248–269
This chapter analyses pragmatic markers within survivor depositions taken after the 1641 rebellion in Ireland. Specifically, we are concerned with those markers which modify or delimit evidentiality, that is degrees of commitment to participant claims or statements. In this way we re-evaluate the ‘truth-as-evidence’ nature of the depositions and query critical views of the corpus as hearsay, propaganda and a crude form of insurance claim. This shall also highlight a pragmatic distinction between legal and therapeutic disclosure, opening up new avenues for pragmatic analysis of what we will call ‘the victims’ voice’.