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Article published In: Historical (socio)pragmatics at present
Edited by Matylda Włodarczyk and Irma Taavitsainen
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 18:2] 2017
► pp. 315–336

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Context and historical (socio-)pragmatics twenty years on

 | Manchester Metropolitan University
Published online: 9 February 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00008.arc
Abstract
This paper has two purposes. First, it constitutes an exploration of context from the perspective of some prominent historical pragmaticians, and/or as demonstrated by publications which represent/exemplify a particular approach within historical pragmatics (Jacobs, Andreas and Andreas H. Jucker. 1995. “The Historical Perspective in Pragmatics”. In Andreas H. Jucker (ed.), Historical Pragmatics: Pragmatic Developments in the History of English, 3–36. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Archer, Dawn and Jonathan Culpeper. 2003. “Sociopragmatic Annotation: New Directions and Possibilities in Historical Corpus Linguistics”. In Andrew Wilson, Paul Rayson and Tony McEnery (eds), Corpus Linguistics by the Lune: Studies in Honour of Geoffrey Leech, 37–58. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2011. “Identifying key Socio-Pragmatic Usage in Plays and Trial Proceedings (1640–1760): An Empirical Approach via Corpus Annotation”. In Jonathan Culpeper (ed.), Historical Sociopragmatics, 109–32. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Nevala, Minna. 2011. “Altering Distance and Defining Authority: Person Reference in Late Modern English”. In Jonathan Culpeper (ed.), Historical Sociopragmatics, 61–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Traugott, Elizabeth C. 2004. “Historical Pragmatics”. In Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward (eds), The Handbook of Pragmatics, 538–61. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2011. “Constructing the Audiences of the Old Bailey Trials 1674–1834”. In Päivi Pahta and Andreas H. Jucker (eds), Communicating Early English Manuscripts, 69–80. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; 2012. “On the Persistence of Ambiguous Linguistic Contexts over Time: Implications for Corpus Research on Micro-changes”. In Joybrato Mukherjee and Magnus Huber (eds), Corpus Linguistics and Variation in English: Theory and Description, 231–46. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; . 2014. “Diachronic Corpus Pragmatics: Intersections and Interactions”. In Irma Taavitsainen, Andreas H. Jucker and Jukka Tuominen (eds), Diachronic Corpus Pragmatics, 3–26. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) as well as related disciplines such as historical sociolinguistics (Nevalainen, Terttu and Helena Raumolin-Brunberg. 2003. Historical Sociolinguistics: Language Change in Tudor and Stuart England. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Second, it explores my own (evolving) view in respect to context, often in response to the influential work of others, as evidenced in a selection of my work (. 2005. Questions and Answers in the English Courtroom (1640–1760): A Sociopragmatic Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2011. “Libeling Oscar Wilde: The Case of Regina vs. John Sholto Douglas”. Journal of Politeness Research 7 (1): 73–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2012. “Assessing Garrow’s Aggressive Questioning Style”. In Gabriella Mazzon (ed.), English Historical Dialogue Studies, 301–20. Milano: FrancoAngeli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2013. “Historical Pragmatics: Evidence from the Old Bailey”. Transactions of the Philological Society: 1–13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2014. “Exploring Verbal Aggression in English Historical Texts Using USAS: The Possibilities, The Problems and Potential Solutions”. In Irma Taavitsainen, Andreas H. Jucker and Jukka Tuominen (eds), Diachronic Corpus Pragmatics, 277–301. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Pragmatic developments in the history of English
    • 2.1Sociopragmatic/pragmalinguistic distinction within cross-cultural pragmatics
    • 2.2Sociopragmatic/pragmalinguistic distinction within historical pragmatics
  • 3.Sociopragmatic investigations with pragmalinguistic interests
    • 3.1Person reference in Late Modern English
    • 3.2The sociophilological approach
      • 3.2.1Pragmatic annotation (within the Sociopragmatic Corpus)
      • 3.2.2The contextual shaping effect(s) of the datasets used
  • 4.Recontextualising decontextualised results
  • 5.A coming together of the component and perspective views
  • 6.Mental aspects of pragmatic theory
    • 6.1Clashing reality paradigms and representational frames
    • 6.2Framing others
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (49)
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