Cover not available

In:Legal Pragmatics
Edited by Dennis Kurzon and Barbara Kryk-Kastovsky
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 288] 2018
► pp. 81–98

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 4
Literal interpretation and political expediency

The case of Thomas More

 | University of Haifa
Published online: 26 April 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.288.04kur
Abstract
In July 1535, the trial of Sir Thomas More took place, in which the ex-Lord Chancellor was accused, and found guilty, of high treason for not expressing support for two statutes passed in 1534, which formed the basis of Henry VIII’s constitutional and religious changes: the Act of Succession and the Act of Supremacy. One of the stipulations was the requirement for people to take an oath in support of these changes. More refused to take the oath, arguing that according to the literal interpretation of the statutes he could be found guilty of misprision [concealment] of treason only, and not of treason itself.
However, it will be argued, More misunderstood – or refused to understand – the ultimate purpose of the statutes, which may stem from his being a lawyer: he gave the statute a literal interpretation and ignored extralinguistic information, since such information does not play a role in interpretation, unless a literal interpretation would not make sense in the context (a possible precursor of Heydon’s Case of 1584).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. The four statutes
    • 2.1The First Act of Succession, (25 Henry VIII, Cap. 22) – March 1534
    • 2.2The Second Act of Succession, (26 Henry VIII, Cap. 2) – November 1534
    • 2.3The Act of Supremacy (26 Henry VIII Cap. 1) – November 1534
    • 2.4Treasons Act (26 Henry VIII. Cap. 13) – December 1534
  • 3. Utterance meaning v. speaker meaning
  • 4. Heydon’s case
  • 5.The case of Thomas More
  • 6. Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (15)
References
Bach, Kent. 2001. “You don’t say.” Synthese 128, 15–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carston, R. 2004. “Relevance Theory and the Saying/Implicating Distinction.” In Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Laurence Horn and Gregory West, 633–656. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, H. J. 1996. “Cross-Cultural Comparison of English and Chinese Metapragmatics in Refusal”. Indiana University. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 408 860; [URL]; accessed January 18, 2016).
Fletcher, Catherine. 2012. The Divorce of Henry VIII. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. 1989. Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, Henry Ansgar, Louis W. Karlin, and Gerard B. Wegemer. 2011. “Thomas More’s Trial: Docudrama.” In Thomas More’s Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents, ed. by H. A. Kelly, L. W. Karlin, and G. B. Wegemer, 210–221. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kurzon, Dennis 2016. “The Three Silences of Sir Thomas More: A Pragmatic Perspective”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 17:1, 107–128.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, S. 2000. Presumptive Meanings: The Theory of Generalized Conversational Implicature. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marmor, Andrei. 2008. “The Pragmatics of Legal Language.” Ratio Juris. Vol. 21 No. 4, 423–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Recanati, François. 2001. “What is said.” Synthese 128, 75–91. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reynolds, E. E. 1964. The Trial of St. Thomas More. London: Burns and Oates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roininen, Anna. 2015. “A Critical Assessment of the Impact of EU Membership on British Sovereignty.” International Affairs. [URL]; accessed January 12, 2016.
Simms, Brendan. 2014. Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, D. and D. Wilson. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tanck, S. 2002. “Speech Acts Sets of Refusal and Complaints: A Comparison of Native and Non Native English Speakers’ Production.” TESOL Working Papers ([URL]; accessed Sept 1, 2015)
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue