“I am desired (…) to desire”
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Matylda Włodarczyk
Abstract
Historical pragmatic analyses have underlined the discourse dependence and pragmatic sensitivity of speech acts. As a result, researchers’ attention has shifted from form, structure and tokenisation of utterances to interactive frameworks. This paper follows suit and argues that speech acts in historical correspondence – in this paper, the letters of the British Colonial Office on the Cape Colony – bear a close resemblance to speech events, interactional moves or speech actions. It presents a qualitative approach to speech act identification and classification that relies on the routines of power and the notion of macro-speech act. In the process of speech act identification, co-textual features and outcomes (perlocutionary effects) serve as crucial reference points. The findings confirm the significance of the status differentials for an early nineteenth-century specialised discourse domain of institutional correspondence.
Abstract
Historical pragmatic analyses have underlined the discourse dependence and pragmatic sensitivity of speech acts. As a result, researchers’ attention has shifted from form, structure and tokenisation of utterances to interactive frameworks. This paper follows suit and argues that speech acts in historical correspondence – in this paper, the letters of the British Colonial Office on the Cape Colony – bear a close resemblance to speech events, interactional moves or speech actions. It presents a qualitative approach to speech act identification and classification that relies on the routines of power and the notion of macro-speech act. In the process of speech act identification, co-textual features and outcomes (perlocutionary effects) serve as crucial reference points. The findings confirm the significance of the status differentials for an early nineteenth-century specialised discourse domain of institutional correspondence.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Phonology
- “A received pronunciation” 21
- The interplay of internal and external factors in varieties of English 43
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Part II. Morphosyntax
- The myth of American English gotten as a historical retention 67
- Changes affecting relative clauses in Late Modern English 91
- Diffusion of do 117
- A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray 143
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Part III. Orthography, vocabulary and semantics
- In search of “the lexicographic stamp” 167
- “Divided by a common language”? 185
- Women writers in the 18th century 203
- Eighteenth-century French cuisine terms and their semantic integration in English 219
- Spelling normalisation of Late Modern English 243
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Part IV. Pragmatics and discourse
- A far from simple matter revisited 271
- What it means to describe speech 295
- Being Wilde 315
- “I am desired (…) to desire” 333
- Index 357
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonology
- “A received pronunciation” 21
- The interplay of internal and external factors in varieties of English 43
-
Part II. Morphosyntax
- The myth of American English gotten as a historical retention 67
- Changes affecting relative clauses in Late Modern English 91
- Diffusion of do 117
- A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray 143
-
Part III. Orthography, vocabulary and semantics
- In search of “the lexicographic stamp” 167
- “Divided by a common language”? 185
- Women writers in the 18th century 203
- Eighteenth-century French cuisine terms and their semantic integration in English 219
- Spelling normalisation of Late Modern English 243
-
Part IV. Pragmatics and discourse
- A far from simple matter revisited 271
- What it means to describe speech 295
- Being Wilde 315
- “I am desired (…) to desire” 333
- Index 357
