Vol. 23:1 (2022) ► pp.54–83
(Polite) directives in mediaeval Catalan
Constructions with the verb plaure (‘please’)
This paper addresses an issue of diachronic speech act analysis and diachronic politeness research at the same time. Its primary aim is to examine uses of two grammatical constructions based on subjunctive forms of the verb plaure (‘please’) in medieval Catalan, relying on a corpus of texts from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. It is argued that the construction “plaure (in subjunctive) + indirect object + que” (‘may it please somebody that’) in the beginning was used to perform permission-requesting directives, and later, indirect directives, which goes against Searle’s generalisation about possible ways of performing indirect directives. Occurrences of the construction “plaure (in subjunctive) + indirect object + infinitive” (‘may it please somebody to do something’), developed later but used with the same function, are also considered, and all of the relevant occurrences are analysed in the framework of Brown and Levinson’s (1987 [1978]) politeness theory. As far as the methodology is concerned, the paper concludes that a highly comparative approach is needed in diachronic speech act analysis – that is, various forms suitable for performing the same type of speech act in an historical period have to be examined together. In accordance with this principle, the findings of this study should be integrated in a larger research project focussing – in addition to constructions with plaure (‘please’) – on uses of constructions involving the verbs meaning ‘think’ and ‘want’ as well, since all of them are assumed to be suitable for performing directives in mediaeval Catalan.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Data and methods of the study
- 3.Constructions with the verb plaure in the corpus of the study
- 4.Theoretical considerations
- 5.Previous findings on imperative and subjunctive constructions appealing to H’s attitude
- 6.The use of subjunctive constructions with plaure in mediaeval Catalan
- 6.1The distribution and some characteristics of subjunctive constructions with plaure
- 6.2Uses of the constructions with subjunctive forms of plaure
- 6.2.1 Speech acts with subjunctive forms of plaure directed at divine addressees
- 6.2.2
Speech acts with the
plaure-construction directed at human addressees
- (i) Type 1 (permission-requesting directives)
- (ii) Type 2 (indirect directives)
- 7.Analysis of the directives with plaure in Brown and Levinson’s (1987 [1978]) politeness theory
- 8.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
Historical sources -
References
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.19001.nag
References
Historical sources
Thirteenth century
Second half of the thirteenth century (between 1283 and 1289)
Fourteenth century (1325–1332)
Second half of the fourteenth and the early-fifteenth centuries
Letters from between 1478 and 1577
First half of the sixteenth century