1 / 7

Keywords and key domains

Keywords and key domains. … in the Trial of the "The Rugeley Poisoner" (William Palmer). The Palmer Trial. Took place – May 1856

gefen
Télécharger la présentation

Keywords and key domains

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Keywords and key domains … in the Trial of the "The Rugeley Poisoner" (William Palmer)

  2. The Palmer Trial • Took place – May 1856 • Note - a new Act of Parliament– The Palmer Act - was rushed through parliament so that the trial could be held at the Old Bailey in London (it was felt that he would not receive a fair trial at the Stafford Assizes). • Accused of: poisoning John Parsons Cook, and forgery • Outcome: “Guilty” • Palmer was hanged at Stafford 14th June 1856 • Subsequently convicted of murdering his wife, Anne, and his brother, Walter, by a Coroner’s jury (also rumoured to have murdered his child/children). • For more details, see: Dave Lewis’s website: http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/exhibit/palmer/default.htm

  3. Exploration of opening speeches In particular, • Sir Alexander Cockburn (Attorney General) • Mr. Serjeant Shee, Q.C. (late replacement for Mr. Serjeant Wilkins) Why the Palmer trial? • First ever trial in Britain where someone was accused of murder by strychnine. • Came after the Prisoners’ Counsel Act (1836), which lifted the felony counsel restriction (i.e. defence counsel not being allowed to address the jury (May 2003: 87)) • Fitzjames Stephen described it as “exhibit[ing] in its very best and strongest light the good side of English Criminal procedure” (1890: 269) Not looking at the closing speeches because: • The Defence was not permitted to make a closing speech summing up the case on behalf of the prisoner until the introduction of the Denham Act 1865

  4. One truth – tetanus – but two explanations: • Both the Prosecution and the Defence agreed that Cook died from tetanic convulsions (or “tetanus” = a disorder of the nervous system) - but they did not agree upon what caused the tetanus. • At the time of the trial there were considered to be three main types of tetanus: • idiopathic tetanus = the cause of a disease is not known. • traumatic tetanus (or "lockjaw“) = caused by an infected wound. • tetanus due to strychnine (now known not to be a form of tetanus).

  5. Exploring “keyness” (Cockburn versus Shee) Both use “Cook” freq. – but they differ in respect to how …. Cluster with bills, forged, betteddebt, turf …

  6. Tracing the “crime narrative” throughout the rest of the trial … Attorney General: • Words that are “key” in the examinations as well as his opening speech – found, health, period, symptoms • Words that were not key in opening speech, but which nevertheless belong to (statistically) significant semantic fields – health, dose, muscles, tissues, pills, doctor (= medical),convulsions, convulsive, sickness, disease, fever, sick, vomiting (= the symptoms/outcome of sickness) fatal, deceased (= death) horse (= gambling)forged, commit, crime (= illegal activities)Bamford, Cheshire, Padwick, Bates, Hawkings, Newton, women, chambermaid, Boycott, Gardner, Tattersall, Shrewsbury (= people and places important to/involved in the crime narrative) Shee: • Words that are “key” in examinations – Cook’s, coroner, Dolly’s, mother, Stephens, Dutton, Barnes, Lavinia, Talbot (= people important to the crime narrative)yesterday, before, now, times (= (periods of) time)coroner, throat, vomited (= medical)swear, asked, talk, spoke, stated, complain (= verbal activity)

  7. References • May, Allyson N. 2003. The Bar and the Old Bailey 1750-1850. Chapel Hill, NC: Univrsity of North Carolina Press. • Stephen, Fitzjames. 1863/1890. A General View of the Criminal Law. London. • Archer, Dawn. 2006. Tracing the development of “advocacy” in two nineteenth century English trials. In M. Dossena and I. Taavitsainen (eds.) Diachronic Perspectives on Domain-Specific English. Bern: Peter Lang; Linguistic Insights series, pp. 55-68.

More Related