This book belongs to the rapidly growing field of historical pragmatics. More specifically, it aims to lend definition to the area of historical sociopragmatics. It seeks to enhance our understanding of the language of the historical courtroom by documenting changes to the discursive roles of the most active participant groups of the English courtroom (e.g. the judges, lawyers, witnesses and defendants) in the period 1640 1760. Although the primary focus is on questions and answers, this book also analyses the use of eliciting and non-eliciting devices (e.g. requests and commands) as a means...