Journal of Historical Pragmatics - Volume 1, Issue 2, 2000

In this paper we examine four speech-related text types in terms of how linguistically close they are to spoken face-to-face interaction. Our “conversational” diagnostics include lexical repetitions, question marks (as an indicator of question-answer adjacency pairs), interruptions, and several single word interactive features (first- and second-person pronouns, private verbs and demonstrative pronouns). We discuss the nature of these diagnostics and then consider their distribution across our text types and across the period 1600 to 1720. We reveal: (1) a differential distribution across our text types (and suggest a number of explanatory factors), and (2) a shift over our period towards features associated with spoken face-to-face interaction (and make the tentative suggestion that this finding may be due to the development of “popular” literatures). We also make some preliminary remarks about our Shakespeare sample.

The paper aims at answering some questions essential for a historical pragmaticist. It examines to what extent the written records available nowadays reflect the language spoken in the past, i.e. what their degree of orality is. The data are two Early Modern English texts: The trial of Titus Oates and The trial of Lady Alice Lisle. Trial records are relevant for this analysis since they are closer to the original sources than other texts and they are interesting for linguistic reasons, e.g. the formulaic expressions or the discourse strategies used in court. The search for traces of orality is based on two features: turn-taking and closeness to the sociocultural context. The study corroborates my initial hypothesis that the two trial records have preserved many traces of orality. Moreover, they are rich sources of information about the political, social and cultural life of the period.

On the basis of the model of narrative structure proposed in Fludernik (1996b) this paper presents the results of an investigation of discourse markers in Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, with a complete line-by-line analysis of The Tale of King Arthur, Books I to III (“Merlin”; “Balin”; “Torre and Pellinor”), A Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake, and The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyones (Book XIV: “Launcelot and Elaine”). The paper argues that the inflation of discourse markers in Malory is a sign of their imminent disappearance from narrative prose and that other features that indicate a dissolution of the oral narrative episode pattern are also visible in the text.

The study of interrogative acts in the Old Spanish Cantar de mio Cid is based on the premise that speech acts not only have to be located in the context of dialogue interaction but also in the frame of the traditions that mark the (literary) text. Because of this context dependency the pragmatic profile of interrogative acts has to be worked out by means of close philological interpretations. After sketching some methodological premises and a definition of the interrogative act, two question types are described in detail: the rhetorical question and a phatic use of the where-question. The analysis illustrates how the interrogative power of questions is shaped by the dialogue context and demonstrates the impact of text traditions like narrative techniques. Thus, the twofold contextualization of the interrogative acts shows the need for an interdisciplinary analysis that integrates sociohistorical considerations as well as literary reflections.

This article deals with directive performatives in Old English. Using the Old English section of the Helsinki Corpus, it examines their frequency, their distribution across text types and their major functions. In addition, the data are compared with their Latin sources and with the frequency of directive performatives in the Modern English LOB Corpus. The results suggest that directive performatives were much more frequent in Old English, with Modern English showing a clear tendency to avoid face-threatening performatives.