Chapter 9. Speech acts in the history of English
-
Thomas Kohnen
Abstract
Throughout the history of the English language we find different sets of speech-act verbs which seem to reflect the most prominent speech acts. These inventories change across the periods of the English language, revealing remarkable lexical gaps. This chapter investigates some of these gaps and how they were filled in the course of history. The basic result of this chapter is somewhat ambivalent. On the one hand it suggests that the study of speech-act gaps and paths of evolution of speech acts, together with a systematic study of speech-act loanwords is a highly promising but completely unexplored area in historical pragmatics. On the other hand, not all donor languages may have exerted a significant influence in the long run.
Abstract
Throughout the history of the English language we find different sets of speech-act verbs which seem to reflect the most prominent speech acts. These inventories change across the periods of the English language, revealing remarkable lexical gaps. This chapter investigates some of these gaps and how they were filled in the course of history. The basic result of this chapter is somewhat ambivalent. On the one hand it suggests that the study of speech-act gaps and paths of evolution of speech acts, together with a systematic study of speech-act loanwords is a highly promising but completely unexplored area in historical pragmatics. On the other hand, not all donor languages may have exerted a significant influence in the long run.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
- Chapter 2. Adapting the Dynamic Model to historical linguistics 5
- Chapter 3. An account of the use of fronting and clefting in Cornish English 35
- Chapter 4. How does causal connection originate? 57
- Chapter 5. Old Northumbrian in the Scottish Borders 75
- Chapter 6. From eadig to happy 97
- Chapter 7. Distributional changes in synonym sets 119
- Chapter 8. The taking off and catching on of etymological spellings in Early Modern English 143
- Chapter 9. Speech acts in the history of English 165
- Index 181
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
- Chapter 2. Adapting the Dynamic Model to historical linguistics 5
- Chapter 3. An account of the use of fronting and clefting in Cornish English 35
- Chapter 4. How does causal connection originate? 57
- Chapter 5. Old Northumbrian in the Scottish Borders 75
- Chapter 6. From eadig to happy 97
- Chapter 7. Distributional changes in synonym sets 119
- Chapter 8. The taking off and catching on of etymological spellings in Early Modern English 143
- Chapter 9. Speech acts in the history of English 165
- Index 181
