Journal of Historical Pragmatics - Current Issue

Abstract

This paper presents a historical contrastive pragmatic study of the use of Chinese “face”-related expressions in Peking and Teochew Opera scripts. The rationale behind this investigation is that contemporary Mandarin and the Minnan Dialect operate with very different inventories of “face”-related expressions, and it is worth considering whether this difference also applies to historical language use, and, if so, how. Studying this matter is particularly relevant for historical pragmatic research because “face”-related expressions have been under-represented in the field. Our study is based on a corpus of nineteen Peking Opera scripts and a comparable corpus of nineteen Teochew Opera scripts, dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The results of our analysis show that the historical Mandarin corpus operates with a duality of the “face”-related expressions lian and mian, in a similar way to modern Mandarin, even though we also found differences between the ways in which these expressions were used in former times and at present. Yet such differences are eclipsed if we contrast historical Mandarin with the Teochew scripts where we found a very different “face” duality than in Mandarin, namely a duality of yan and mian. This duality also differs from what one can witness in present-day Minnan.

Abstract

This paper examines authorial presence in late-Modern English scientific writing through a study of second-person pronouns in the chet (History texts) and cechet (Chemistry texts) sub-corpora of the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing. Although existing studies in this area have tended to focus on self-mentions (Hyland 2001, 2008; Flowerdew and Ho Wang 2015; Moskowich 2020; Suau-Jiménez 2020), I will argue that second-person pronominal forms can also reflect and underline more broadly the author’s voice through direct interaction with the readership (Ivanić and Camps 2001; Matsuda and Tardy 2007), especially in terms of dialogic you. This interaction is seen in the use of you forms and the possible functions that these perform, according to period, discipline, socio-external factors, and the sex of the author. Whereas observing the data from these diverse perspectives can yield differing, partial results, it can be argued that, when taken together, such elements can lead to a far more accurate picture of an author’s voice. The analysis presented here is an attempt to confirm that this is indeed the case.

Abstract

Pragmatic studies have recently shown that volition ascription to the addressee corresponds to specific strategies and deserves more attention. This paper discusses a series of post-volitional developments attested by second-person forms of the Latin verb uolo (‘I want’). Whilst these grammaticalisation phenomena — some of which are also attested cross-linguistically — have mainly been dealt with separately, this paper shows that they can be treated in a unified manner, as all originally employ volition ascription as a conversational strategy. In Latin, uolo constructions featuring the verb in the second person allowed the speaker to offer the addressee options to choose from or, in the case of prohibitive sentences, to preclude them from a specific choice. In this way, this paper sheds new light on volition ascription strategies as a pragmatic device and their diachronic developments in Latin as well as cross-linguistically.

Abstract

This paper explores the linguistic realisation of threats in a corpus of threatening letters discussed in Late Modern English (lmode) criminal trials at the Old Bailey. After investigating how trial participants ascribe the action of “threatening” to the utterance in question, I examine which aspects are repeatedly addressed in the letters and which linguistic patterns are employed to perform the threat. The results show that speakers routinely address the preparatory and sincerity conditions of commissives to negotiate whether a letter is threatening. Compared to present-day threats, lmode threats are considerably less speaker-focussed, and more threats explicitly specify threatener, target, and type of harm to be carried out. Linguistically, lmode threatening letters contain a greater amount of taboo language and more non-conditional and retaliative threats.

Abstract

The development of the pragmatic marker anyway in Irish English is of relatively recent date. From an original adverb of manner there developed a pragmatic meaning when the element shifted to the right periphery (or became exposed there through deletion of an element to the right of it). A transition period occurred during which varying interpretations of anyway were possible, facilitating the rise of anyway as a pragmatic marker. Later it appeared in the prosodically more prominent left periphery where anyway can only have a pragmatic interpretation. The main theoretical insight of this study is that the discourse function arose from the ambiguous interpretation of unqualified anyway. Importantly, a prosodic distinction arose between the two functions of anyway with the discourse use showing considerably less stress on the final syllable [–weɪ] than the syntactic use.

This article reviews Chinese Politeness: Diachrony, Variation, and Universals in Politeness Theory