“It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter”
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Krisda Chaemsaithong
Abstract
This paper investigates the use of politeness in various parts of the pauper letters of the 18th century. While grounded in Brown & Levinson’s framework (1987), the paper argues that the writers had much more discursive leeway in choosing politeness strategies to achieve their communicative goals than Brown & Levinson (1987) predict. This in turn shows that the socio-cultural factors such as power and distance do not work out in the same way in all sub-cultural groups, and that politeness is best viewed as local norms operating in a particular socio-cultural context.
Abstract
This paper investigates the use of politeness in various parts of the pauper letters of the 18th century. While grounded in Brown & Levinson’s framework (1987), the paper argues that the writers had much more discursive leeway in choosing politeness strategies to achieve their communicative goals than Brown & Levinson (1987) predict. This in turn shows that the socio-cultural factors such as power and distance do not work out in the same way in all sub-cultural groups, and that politeness is best viewed as local norms operating in a particular socio-cultural context.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
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Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
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Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
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Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
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Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
-
Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
-
Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
-
Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
-
Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
