Late Modern English death notices
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Sarah Borde
Abstract
Death notices are traditional texts that have become conventionalised within a certain speech community. They use highly standardised expressions and established structural patterns to fulfil the function of informing about an individual’s death. This paper traces the development and linguistic realisation of this text type throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of a diachronic corpus, the Corpus of English Death Notices (CEDN), which consists of 400 death notices published between 1801 and 2012 in four English newspapers (The Morning Chronicle, The Daily News, The Times, and The Guardian). The pre-set macrostructure of the text type can be described in terms of a template consisting of thirteen different structural elements. The analysis of the text samples shows that many of these structural elements display social and cultural norms and conventions. Ten of the elements can already be found at the beginning of the 19th century; a further three elements start to appear within the period of investigation, adding new communicative functions to the texts. Based on their frequency of occurrence, they can be categorised as obligatory or optional elements of the text type. The diachronic investigation shows that some of these components remain stable whereas others change status. As regards their linguistic realisation, tendencies towards greater precision, e.g. when mentioning the date of death, as well as tendencies towards more vague expressions, e.g. when referring to the circumstances of the death, can be observed.
Abstract
Death notices are traditional texts that have become conventionalised within a certain speech community. They use highly standardised expressions and established structural patterns to fulfil the function of informing about an individual’s death. This paper traces the development and linguistic realisation of this text type throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of a diachronic corpus, the Corpus of English Death Notices (CEDN), which consists of 400 death notices published between 1801 and 2012 in four English newspapers (The Morning Chronicle, The Daily News, The Times, and The Guardian). The pre-set macrostructure of the text type can be described in terms of a template consisting of thirteen different structural elements. The analysis of the text samples shows that many of these structural elements display social and cultural norms and conventions. Ten of the elements can already be found at the beginning of the 19th century; a further three elements start to appear within the period of investigation, adding new communicative functions to the texts. Based on their frequency of occurrence, they can be categorised as obligatory or optional elements of the text type. The diachronic investigation shows that some of these components remain stable whereas others change status. As regards their linguistic realisation, tendencies towards greater precision, e.g. when mentioning the date of death, as well as tendencies towards more vague expressions, e.g. when referring to the circumstances of the death, can be observed.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
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The formation of public news discourse and metadiscursive terminology
- “We have in some former bookes told you” 3
- Conceptualisations, sources and agents of news 23
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Changing modes of reference and shifts in audience orientation
- News in space and time 55
- Changing genre conventions and socio-cultural change 81
- Late Modern English death notices 103
- Medical news in England 1665–1800 in journals for professional and lay audiences 135
-
Transgressing boundaries and shifting styles
- Comparing discourse construction in 17th-century news genres 163
- Speech-like syntax in written texts 191
- Playing upon news genre conventions 223
- Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
-
The formation of public news discourse and metadiscursive terminology
- “We have in some former bookes told you” 3
- Conceptualisations, sources and agents of news 23
-
Changing modes of reference and shifts in audience orientation
- News in space and time 55
- Changing genre conventions and socio-cultural change 81
- Late Modern English death notices 103
- Medical news in England 1665–1800 in journals for professional and lay audiences 135
-
Transgressing boundaries and shifting styles
- Comparing discourse construction in 17th-century news genres 163
- Speech-like syntax in written texts 191
- Playing upon news genre conventions 223
- Index 251
