Article published In:
Journal of Historical Pragmatics: Online-First ArticlesPoliteness, speech acts and socio-cultural change
The expression of gratitude in the history of English
This paper studies the long-term diachronic development of the speech act of expressing gratitude in the history
of English in Britain. The speech act underwent a considerable transformation from a religious-devotional practice and an
expressive act with a high illocutionary weight addressed to a fellow human being towards a predominantly phatic routine in
everyday conversation. Based on empirical data it is suggested that this development is characterised by the interplay of four
processes: recontextualisation, functional expansion, attenuation/reduction of illocutionary force, and routinisation. Since, as
will be shown, these changes run parallel to major changes in the organisation of society in the social history of Britain, they
appear to be part of more general socio-cultural transformational processes that affected behavioural conventions, including
politeness conventions and communicative routines.
Keywords: gratitude, politeness, social change, speech acts
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Social history and diachronic speech act analysis
- 3.Capitalism, development of the individual self and the expression of gratitude
- 4.Method and database
- 5.Analysis
- 5.1General development of the frequency and function of expressions of gratitude
- 5.2Period I: Expressing gratitude in feudalism
- 5.3Period II: Early capitalism
- Recontextualisation
- Functional expansion
- Attenuation
- Routinisation
- 5.4Period III: Modern capitalism
- Recontextualisation
- Functional expansion
- Attenuation
- Routinisation
- 6.Discussion
- 7.Conclusion
- Note
-
References
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