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- Volume 1, Issue, 2000
Journal of Historical Pragmatics - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2000
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2000
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Invoking scalarity: The development of in fact
Author(s): Scott A. Schwenter and Elizabeth Closs Traugottpp.: 7–25 (19)More LessThe discourse contexts are analyzed in which clause-internal in fact developed pragmaticalized meanings and came to invoke scalarity in two domains: epistemic sentence adverb (IPAdv), and additive discourse marker (DM). In both these uses, in fact tightens word to world fit (Powell 1992): the world of epistemic belief in the case of the IPAdv, the world of evaluative, rhetorical perspective in the case of the DM. The analysis therefore provides further evidence for (i) pragmatic ambiguities across these worlds (Sweetser 1990), (ii) subjectification that shifts perspectives from interpersonal (adversative) to personal evaluation (Traugott 1989), (iii) the pragmatic relationship between scalarity, adversativity and additivity (Schwenter 1999). The different orientations of the two uses suggest they are polysemous, not contextually bound.
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Development of demo type connectives and na elements: Two extremes of Japanese discourse markers
Author(s): Noriko O. Onoderapp.: 27–55 (29)More LessThis paper suggests the independence of grammaticalization and pragmaticalization processes. These two processes are originally and self-evidently autonomous evolutionary paths that occur independently of each other. However, grammaticalization is often discussed, indeed in the majority of the recent studies, in correlation to some unidirectional features that co-occur with grammaticalization. Such features include, structurally, for example, “bondedness” and “structural scope” (Lehmann 1995), and functionally, for example, “increase in abstraction” and “pragmaticalization”. These unidirectional features are at times even considered too authoritatively criterial to judge a given language change as an instance of grammaticalization. This study illustrates a piece of evidence for the asymmetric relationship of grammaticalization and pragmaticalization. That is, the two groups of Japanese discourse markers — (1) demo type connectives and (2) na elements — experience quite different historical changes. The group (1) undergoes both grammaticalization and pragmaticalization, but the group (2) undergoes pragmaticalization without involving grammaticalization.
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Diachronic speech act analysis: Insults from flyting to flaming
Author(s): Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainenpp.: 67–95 (29)More LessIn this paper we want to develop a model for the diachronic analysis of speech acts by tracing one particular speech act through the history of English, viz. insults. Speech acts are fuzzy concepts which show both diachronic and synchronic variation. We therefore propose a notion of a multidimensional pragmatic space in which speech acts can be analyzed in relation to neighboring speech acts. Against this background we discuss both the changing cultural grounding in which insults occur and the changing ways in which they are realized. Our data is drawn from the Old English poem Beowulf and the Finnsburh fragment, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and from Shakespeare’s plays, and from a variety of non-literary sources such as personal letters, court records and an internet discussion group. The scale ranges from everyday communication to ritualized behavior. When written materials of the past periods are analyzed, the bias towards the conventionalized insults is evident. Most early examples are found in literary texts and seem to reflect generic conventions of the time and the culture that gave rise to these literary forms.
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Constructing witches and spells: Speech acts and activity types in Early Modern England
Author(s): Jonathan Culpeper and Elena Seminopp.: 97–116 (20)More LessIn this paper, we highlight the centrality of verbs relating to verbal activities in witchcraft narratives in the Early Modern English period, and focus on speech act verbs used to refer to witches’ curses. In the first part, we refer to various classifications of speech act verbs and to Searle’s felicity conditions for speech acts, in order to describe the different meanings of verbs such as to curse, and to show how their central meaning has shifted over time. In the second part, we show how the speech act verbs form a structured set, which — in appropriate circumstances — could be used as an interpretative frame to create witchcraft events out of relatively trivial arguments within village communities. Here, we refer to Levinson’s notion of activity types as a possible explanatory framework.
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‘But-þat þou louye me, Sertes y dye fore loue of þe’: Towards a typology of opening moves in Courtly Amorous Interaction
Author(s): Thomas Honeggerpp.: 117–150 (34)More LessIn this paper, I look at how medieval and early modern poets present and exploit the potential inherent in opening moves in (love) relationships for the purpose of plot motivation and protagonist characterisation. The depiction of the opening moves depends on three interrelated pairs of variables: 1) legalistic tradition (marriage as the reason for initiating a relationship) vs emotional tradition (focus is on the beloved person’s affection), 2) plot motivation vs protagonist characterisation, and 3) brevity vs length. Longer texts that focus on the lovers’ feelings and that pay some attention to protagonist characterisation are more likely to feature relatively complex linguistic strategies presented in a basically realistic interactional manner. In shorter texts of the emotional tradition, the complexity is reduced, and poets working in the legalistic tradition often pay hardly any attention at all to the finer points of opening moves in love interaction.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 26 (2025)
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Volume 25 (2024)
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Volume 24 (2023)
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Volume 23 (2022)
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Volume 22 (2021)
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Volume 21 (2020)
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Volume 20 (2019)
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Volume 19 (2018)
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Volume 18 (2017)
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Volume 17 (2016)
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Volume 16 (2015)
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Volume 15 (2014)
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Volume 14 (2013)
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Volume 13 (2012)
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Volume 12 (2011)
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Volume 11 (2010)
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Volume 10 (2009)
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Volume 9 (2008)
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Volume 8 (2007)
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Volume 7 (2006)
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Volume 6 (2005)
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Volume 5 (2004)
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Volume 4 (2003)
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Volume 3 (2002)
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Volume 2 (2001)
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Volume 1 (2000)
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