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In:Changing Genre Conventions in Historical English News Discourse
Edited by Birte Bös and Lucia Kornexl
[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 5] 2015
► pp. 3–22

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“We have in some former bookes told you”

The significance of metatext in 17th-century news

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Published online: 24 July 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.5.01bro
This contribution examines metatextual comment in 17th-century periodical news publications. Periodical news publication was a new genre and those involved in its production had to determine the language they should use in the writing up of such news. In the article I analyze the terminology 17thcentury news writers themselves adopt in relation to their own publications and the news they are presenting. The analysis focuses both on the frequency and content of editorial metadiscourse between 1620 (the start of periodical news) and 1695 (the lapse of the Licensing Act). The diachronic analysis of frame and endophoric metatextual markers provides insight into editorial aspirations, anxieties, commercial concerns and general attitudes to news discourse.
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