Cover not available

In:Late Modern English: Novel encounters
Edited by Merja Kytö and Erik Smitterberg
[Studies in Language Companion Series 214] 2020
► pp. 295–314

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

What it means to describe speech

Pragmatic variation and change in speech descriptors in Late Modern English

 | University of Kansas
Published online: 18 March 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.214.13gru
Abstract
This article explores the form, frequency, and function of “speech descriptors” (such as softly in “It matters little,” she said, softly; CLMET3.0, A Christmas Carol, Period 2: 1839) in Late Modern English. Drawing on the narrative fiction category in the CLMET3.0 corpus, I show the rise of speech descriptors across the period, their linguistic characteristics, and their various pragmatic functions. Most descriptors are evaluative in that they indicate the narrator’s or author’s assessment of how the speech was delivered. Often, the usage is connected with characterization, demonstrating the evaluation of the original speaker in addition to the speech. I also stress the importance of approaching speech descriptors using variationist principles rather than word normalization.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous research
  • 3.Material and methodology
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Overall results and text dispersion
    • 4.2Linguistic realizations
    • 4.3Speech descriptor functions
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (41)
References
Baynham, Mike & Slembrouck, Stef. 1999. Speech representation and institutional discourse. Text 19(4): 439–457. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bednarek, Monika. 2011. Expressivity and televisual characterization. Language and Literature 20(1): 3–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas, Johansson, Stig, Leech, Geoffrey, Conrad, Susan & Finegan, Edward. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Pearson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Gillian. 1990. Listening to Spoken English, 2nd edn. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Busse, Beatrix. 2010. Adverbial expressions of stance in Early Modern “spoken” English. In Proceedings. Anglistentag 2009 Klagenfurt, Jörg Helbig & René Schallegger (eds), 47–63. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Forthcoming. Speech, Writing and Thought Presentation in 19th-Century Narrative Fiction. Oxford: OUP.
Camiciotti, Gabriella Del Lungo. 2007. Discoursal aspects of the Legends of Holy Women by Osbern Bokenham. In Methods in Historical Pragmatics, Susan M. Fitzmaurice & Irma Taavitsainen (eds), 285–305. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chaemsaithong, Krisda. 2012. Performing self on the witness stand: Stance and relational work in expert witness Testimony. Discourse & Society 23(5): 465–486. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Claridge, Claudia. 2017. Voices in medieval history writing. Nordic Journal of English Studies 16(1), 7–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2001. Language and Characterisation: People in Plays and Other Texts. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Smet, Hendrik. 2005. A Corpus of Late Modern English Texts. ICAME Journal 29: 69–82.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W. 2007. The stance triangle. In Englebretson (ed.), 139–182.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eberhardt, Maeve. 2017. Gendered representations through speech: The case of the Harry Potter series. Language and Literature 26(3): 227–246. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Englebretson, Robert (ed.). 2007. Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, Evaluation, and Interaction, [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 164]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gray, Bethany. 2013. Interview with Douglas Biber. Journal of English Linguistics 41(4): 359–379. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gray, Bethany, Biber, Douglas & Hiltunen, Turo. 2011. The expression of stance in early (1665–1712) publications of the Philosophical Transactions and other contemporary medical prose: Innovations in a pioneering discourse. In Medical Writing in Early Modern English, Irma Taavitsainen & Päivi Pahta (eds), 221–247. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grund, Peter J. 2017. Description, evaluation and stance: Exploring the forms and functions of speech descriptors in Early Modern English. Nordic Journal of English Studies 16(1): 41–73. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grund, Peter J. & Walker, Terry. Forthcoming. Introduction. In Speech Representation in the History of English: Topics and Approaches, Peter J. Grund & Terry Walker (eds). Oxford: OUP.
de Haan, Pieter. 1996. More on the language of dialogue in fiction. ICAME Journal 20: 23–40.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holt, Elizabeth & Clift, Rebecca (eds). 2007. Reporting Talk: Reported Speech in Interaction. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hunston, Susan & Thompson, Geoff. 2000. Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs, Andreas & Jucker, Andreas H. 1995. The historical perspective in pragmatics. In Historical Pragmatics: Pragmatic Developments in the History of English [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 35], Andreas H. Jucker (ed.), 3–33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaffe, Alexandra (ed.). 2009. Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jucker, Andreas H. & Berger, Manuel. 2014. The development of discourse presentation in The Times, 1833–1988. Media History 20(1): 67–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1969. Contraction, deletion, and inherent variability of the English copula. Language 45(4): 715–762. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, Diana M. 2012. Chapter 56: Late Modern English: Pragmatics and discourse. In English Historical Linguistics: An International Handbook, Vol. 1, Alexander Bergs & Laurel J. Brinton (eds), 901–915. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lippman, Louis G. & Tragesser, Sarah L. 2005. Constructing something funny: Levels of associative connection in Tom Swifties. Journal of General Psychology 132(3): 231–242.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lutzky, Ursula. 2015. Quotations in Early Modern English witness depositions. In The Pragmatics of Quoting Now and Then, Jenny Arendholz, Wolfram Bublitz & Monika Kirner-Ludwig (eds), 343–368. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mahlberg, Michaela. 2013. Corpus Stylistics and Dickens’s Fiction. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McIntyre, Dan & Walker, Brian. 2011. Discourse presentation in Early Modern English writing: A preliminary corpus-based investigation. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 16(1): 101–130. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moore, Colette. 2011. Quoting Speech in Early English. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oostdijk, Nelleke. 1990. The language of dialogue in fiction. Literary and Linguistic Computing 5(3): 235–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pichler, Heike. 2013. The Structure of Discourse-Pragmatic Variation [Studies in Language Variation 13]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
San Segundo, Pablo Ruano. 2016. A corpus-stylistic approach to Dickens’ use of speech verbs: Beyond mere reporting. Language and Literature 25(2): 113–129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Semino, Elena & Short, Mick. 2004. Corpus Stylistics: Speech, Writing and Thought Presentation in a Corpus of English Writing. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah. 1989. Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waters, Cathleen. 2016. Practical strategies for elucidating discourse-pragmatic variation. In Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change in English: New Methods and Insights, Heike Pichler (ed.), 41–55. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Grund, Peter J.
2025. Speech Representation in the History of English. In The New Cambridge History of the English Language, ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Bouso, Tamara & Pablo Ruano San Segundo
2024. The Reaction Object Construction in the Leech and Short’s model: A new strategy of discourse presentation in the nineteenth-century novel. Studia Neophilologica ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. The Sociopragmatics of Stance [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 329], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue