Early Modern English News Discourse
Newspapers, pamphlets and scientific news discourse
University of Zurich
In Early Modern Britain, new publication channels were developed and new textual genres established themselves. News discourse became increasingly more important and reached wider audiences, with pamphlets as the first real mass media. Newspapers appeared, first on a weekly and then on a daily basis. And scientific news discourse in the form of letters exchanged between fellow scholars turned into academic journals. The papers in this volume provide state-of-the art analyses of these developments.
The first part of the volume contains studies of early newspapers that range from reports of crime and punishment to want ads, and from traces of religious language in early newspapers to the use of imperatives. The second part is devoted to pamphlets and provides detailed analyses of news reporting and of impoliteness strategies. The last section is devoted to scientific news discourse and traces the early publication formats in their various manifestations.
The first part of the volume contains studies of early newspapers that range from reports of crime and punishment to want ads, and from traces of religious language in early newspapers to the use of imperatives. The second part is devoted to pamphlets and provides detailed analyses of news reporting and of impoliteness strategies. The last section is devoted to scientific news discourse and traces the early publication formats in their various manifestations.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 187]
2009.
vii, 227 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Hardbound – Available
ISBN
9789027254320
|
EUR
95.00
|
USD
143.00
e-Book – Sold by e-book platforms
ISBN
9789027289476
|
EUR
95.00
|
USD
143.00
Table of Contents
|
Preface
|
vii
|
|
Newspapers, pamphlets and scientific news discourse in Early Modern Britain
|
1–9
|
|
Newspapers
|
|
|
Crime and punishment
|
13–30
|
|
Reading late eighteenth-century want ads
|
31–55
|
|
“Alwayes in te Orbe of honest Mirth, and next to Truth”: Proto-infotainment in the Welch Mercury
|
57–72
|
|
Religious language in early English newspapers?
|
73–89
|
|
“As silly as an Irish Teague”: Comparisons in early English news discourse
|
91–114
|
|
“Place yer bets” and “Let us hope”: Imperatives and their pragmatic functions in news reports
|
115–133
|
|
Pamphlets
|
|
|
Comparing seventeenth-century news broadsides and occasional news pamphlets: Interrelatedness in news reporting
|
137–157
|
|
“From you, my Lord, professions are but words – they are so much bait for fools to catch at”: Impoliteness strategies in the 1797–1800 Act of Union pamphlet debate
|
159–185
|
|
Scientific news discourse
|
|
|
“Joyful News out of the Newfound World”: Medical and scientific news reports in Early Modern England
|
189–204
|
|
News filtering processes in the Philosophical Transactions
|
205–221
|
|
Index
|
223–227
|
Quotes
“This well-focused collection comprehends a rich range of subtopics and perspectives [...]. Demonstrating the value of sharp focus and rich context, the collection's contributors employ a range of pragmatic methods. The entire volume reminds us that identifying and analysing trends in new discourse has been facilitated by the increasing availability of digitised texts. It is fitting that the collection is dedicated to Udo Fries, a pioneer in the study of early English newspapers and "the driving force" (p. viii) behind Zurich English Newspaper corpus, drawn on by several contributors here. Indeed, the proliferation of digitised texts underscores the importance of carefully complied corpora.”
Carol Percy, University of Toronto, in Journal of Historical Pragmatics 12:1/2 (2011)
Subjects
Benjamins Subject classification
BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2009008214