“Yet ar ye not lyche, for thu art a fals strumpet”
Pronominal terms of address in The Book of Margery Kempe
In Late Middle English, the system of second-person pronouns with singular referents is characterised by
retractable choices based on the interactional status of interlocutors. This system has until recently been documented mostly in
studies based on poetic texts, such as the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, and, to a lesser extent, private
correspondence and mystery plays. We use the Book of Margery Kempe as a primary source and offer the perspective
of a middle-class female author from early-fifteenth-century Norfolk. Conventional politeness of Margery Kempe requires the
default use of ye/you/your forms, especially when addressees are unfamiliar, older or socially superior, but also
in situations of mutual acceptance and deference. Thou/thee/thine forms, on the other hand, indicate social or
intellectual superiority as well as, at the interactional level, condescension, contempt, annoyance, defiance and abuse. Their
use, therefore, is typically marked.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Theoretical framework
- 1.2
The Book of Margery Kempe: Text, manuscript and authorship
- 1.3Data
- 2.Results and analysis
- 2.1Overview
- 2.2Margery as speaker
- 2.2.1Divine addressees
- 2.2.2Human addressees
- 2.3God as speaker
- 2.4Other speakers
- 2.4.1Male speakers
- 2.4.2Female speakers
- 2.5Switches
- 2.6An innovative pronominal form?
- 3.Conclusion
- Notes
-
Primary sources
-
References