Pragmatic markers as implicit emotive anchoring
Modality as evidence of trauma in the 1641 depositions
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’.