Journal of Historical Pragmatics - Volume 26, Issue 1, 2025

Abstract

The Modern Chinese concessive connective kě shì (e.g., kàn shàngqù bù zěnmeyàng, kě shì chī qǐlái què tǐng bùcuò [‘it looks not so good, but it tastes quite good’]) did not develop from a clause-initial emphatic kě shì structure that has a pragmatic counter expectation meaning (e.g., kě shì tā shuōde [‘it was really she who said it’]), but from an affirmative response marker kě shì in Early Modern Chinese (e.g., kě shì ne, míng’er nǐ sòngwǒ shénme? [‘quite right, what do you send me as gifts tomorrow?’]). Shì in the connective did not develop from a copula shì, but from an adjective shì meaning ‘right, true’ (e.g., rán, shì yě [‘right, it’s true’]). The hypothesised pathway may be explained as the grammaticalisation of an affirmative response marker used in the context of token agreement, and may be adopted to account for the formation of an Old Chinese concessive connective rán (e.g., rán Zhèng wáng, zǐ yì yǒu bùlì yān [‘but if Zheng State perishes, it serves you no good, either’]). It gives support to an extra-clausal source for the formation of a sentence connective.

Abstract

In Late Middle English, the system of second-person pronouns with singular referents is characterised by retractable choices based on the interactional status of interlocutors. This system has until recently been documented mostly in studies based on poetic texts, such as the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, and, to a lesser extent, private correspondence and mystery plays. We use the Book of Margery Kempe as a primary source and offer the perspective of a middle-class female author from early-fifteenth-century Norfolk. Conventional politeness of Margery Kempe requires the default use of ye/you/your forms, especially when addressees are unfamiliar, older or socially superior, but also in situations of mutual acceptance and deference. Thou/thee/thine forms, on the other hand, indicate social or intellectual superiority as well as, at the interactional level, condescension, contempt, annoyance, defiance and abuse. Their use, therefore, is typically marked.

Abstract

In this paper, we examine information-organising graphic devices such as tables and diagrams in Middle English manuscripts. Our focus is on text producers’ metadiscourse describing these devices and instructing the reader in their use. We also pay attention to the visual and spatial relationship between the graphic device and the surrounding text. Our findings indicate that the metadiscourse associated with graphic devices serves similar functions to image captions (verbal cueing) in modern textbooks: identifying and describing the devices and instructing the reader in using them.

Abstract

This paper explores the processes of identity construction and negotiation through face work in a Portuguese Inquisition record, corresponding to the trial for Judaism of Catarina de Orta. Concentrating as much on the inquisitor’s questions as on the answers offered by the defendant, I show here that impoliteness and self-politeness co-occur in interaction in the Portuguese Inquisition courtroom discourse. On the one hand, the inquisitor makes abundant use of impoliteness strategies with at least three main aims: to exert his power over the defendant, to trigger specific negative emotions, and to attack her face and her credibility. On the other hand, the defendant’s answers display numerous features of self-politeness, aimed at saving her face from the inquisitor’s attacks and accusations. It is precisely through the interplay of impoliteness and self-politeness that the two competing narratives proposed by the accuser and the defendant are constructed and re-elaborated during every interrogation.

Abstract

This paper focusses on verbal politeness in the direct speech found in Vedic. Certain impersonalisation strategies typical of classical Sanskrit are already attested here, as third-person polite directives or as the expression of the speaker’s wishes, rather than as direct commands, and represent the maximum degree of illocutionary opacity. Passive syntax, which is a prominent device of indirectness in classical Sanskrit, is still marginal in Vedic. In the analysis of terms of address, a hierarchical but highly flexible politeness-orientated allomorphy can be observed. Moreover, the speaker can, in the same interaction, shift from one level of politeness to another to convey changes in his or her self-perception regarding the level of wisdom that he or she has with respect to an interlocutor (factor [±knowing]); rules marked by social stratification are not found to be decisive, contrary to what has been shown to be the case in post-Vedic normative texts.

This article reviews Pragmatics in the History of English

This article reviews Historical Etiquette: Etiquette Books in Nineteenth-Century Western Cultures

This article reviews Politeness in the History of English: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day