What it means to describe speech
Pragmatic variation and change in speech descriptors in Late
Modern English
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
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