Thou and You in Early Modern English Dialogues

Trials, Depositions, and Drama Comedy

Author

Terry Walker | Uppsala University

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027254016 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027292605 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00

This book is a corpus-based study examining thou and you in three speech-related genres from 1560–1760, a crucial period in the history of second person singular pronouns, spanning the time from when you became dominant to when thou became all but obsolete. The study embraces the fields of corpus linguistics, historical pragmatics, and historical sociolinguistics. Using data drawn from the recently released A Corpus of English Dialogues 1560–1760 and manuscript material, the aim is to ascertain which extra-linguistic and linguistic factors highlighted by previous research appear particularly relevant in the selection and relative distribution of thou and you. Previous research on thou and you has tended to concentrate on Drama and/or been primarily qualitative in nature. Depositions in particular have hitherto received very little attention. This book is intended to help fill a gap in the literature by presenting an in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of pronoun usage in Trials, Depositions, and, for comparative purposes, Drama Comedy.

[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 158] 2007. xx, 339 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.158

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements | p. xiii

List of tables, figures, and maps | pp. xv–xx

1. Introduction | p. 1

1.1 Aims and scope
1.2 Methodological framework
1.3 Presentation of corpus examples
1.4 Outline of the study

2. Corpus and genre overview | p. 9

2.1 Introduction
2.2 A Corpus of English Dialogues 1560–1760 (CED)
2.3 The corpus used for the present study
2.4 The genres investigated
2.5 Summary

3. Data classification | p. 21

3.1 Introduction
3.2 The classification system for the parameters of sex, age, and rank
3.3 Summary

4. Previous research on thou and you in Early Modern English | p. 39

4.1 Introduction and historical background
4.2 Theoretical approaches to the study of pronoun usage
4.3 Genre studies of pronoun usage
4.4 Thou and you in contemporaneous grammars
4.5 The development of address systems in Early Modern European languages
4.6 Summary

5. Thou and you in Trials 1560–1760 | p. 65

5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Trials sub-corpus
5.3 The macro-analysis
5.4 The micro-analysis: Pronoun usage in the Trials sub-corpus
5.5 Summary

6. Thou and you in Depositions 1560–1760 | p. 93

6.1 Introduction
6.2 The Depositions sub-corpus
6.3 The macro-analysis
6.4 The micro-analysis: Pronoun usage in the Depositions sub-corpus

7. Thou and you in Drama Comedy 1560–1760 | p. 171

7.1 Introduction
7.2 The Drama Comedy sub-corpus
7.3 The macro-analysis
7.4 The micro-analysis: Pronoun usage in the Drama Comedy sub-corpus

8. The role of selected linguistic factors in thou and you usage | p. 237

8.1 Introduction
8.2 Is there evidence of grammatical conditioning of thou and you usage?
8.3 Pronoun forms and their syntactic function

9. Summary and conclusions | p. 287

9.1 Overview of the aims and hypotheses
9.2 Summary of findings for the three genres
9.3 Factors influencing pronoun usage
9.4 Were the hypotheses confirmed?
9.5 Suggestions for further research

Appendix | p. 297

Index | p. 337

“Terry Walker's 'Thou and You in Early Modern English Dialogues' (2007) is an impressive in-depth study on pronoun in early English trials, depositions and comedies. Mainly drawing material from A Corpus of English Dialogues 1560-1760 (CED) [...] the book is a welcome addition to the extensive continuum of historical linguistic studies concentrating on the use of thou and you. Walker's book is a meticulous and comprehensive study. Its major strength lies in the way in which quantitative analysis is combined with, and supported by, qualitative examination of the context. With ample use of examples drawn from the data, the writer is able to illustrate the extent of variation in the use of second-person singular pronouns within the period when thou was gradually becoming obsolete. Her findings both corroborate those gained from earlier studies on the macro-level factors determining thou and you usage and shed new light on the contextual variation of the two pronouns. The study also proves how important and advantageous it is to be able to make use of well-compiled language corpora for studies in historical linguistics, in general, and in sociopragmatics, in particular.”

Minna Nevala, University of Helsinki, in the Journal of Historical Pragmatics, Vol. 11:2 (2010)

“Walker's book, an in particular her investigation of the Depositions material, represents an important corrective addition to existing scholarship in the field, which has tended to concentrate on dramatic works, and those of Shakespeare in particular. An impressive amount of detailed information is processed, but the reader is guided through the presentation by purposeful organisation of the material into subsections, by frequent summaries and helpful graphs and charts supplementing the tables, and by great clarity of style throughout.”

Kari E. Haugland, University of Bergen, in English Studies Vol. 90, No. 4 (2009)

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