Chapter published in:
The Dynamics of Text and Framing Phenomena: Historical approaches to paratext and metadiscourse in English
Edited by Matti Peikola and Birte Bös
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 317] 2020
► pp. 63–90

Chapter 3
The footnote in Late Modern English historiographical writing

| University of Augsburg
| University of Augsburg
An aspect distinguishing historical from other narration is the historiographers’ engagement with sources and other scholars, which shows as intertextuality in the text. A prominent intertextual device is the (foot)note, which originates around 1700 (Grafton 1997: 191) and whose institutionalised presence separates older, literary historiography from the more modern scholarly type and with regard to frequency of use also history from other humanities research (Koskela and Männikkö 2009: 155). A footnote may simply be used to provide a reference, the origin of information and thus evidence. Additionally this evidence may be further commented on. If there is more or other content than a reference, the text-note coherence relationship can be described by adapting the Hallidayan (clause) expansion types of elaboration, extension and enhancement. The exploratory study further shows that positioning of self and others within the historiographical discourse community can be done via stance devices in the footnote text.
Keywords: historiography, footnote, paratext, evidentiality, positioning, reader alignment, evaluation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Footnotes – paratext – metadiscourse
  • 3. Historiography and footnotes
  • 4.Data and methodology
  • 5.Text-note linking: Functions
  • 6.Authorial positioning in footnotes
    • 6.1Evaluation in footnotes
    • 6.2Authors and readers in interaction
  • 7.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • Primary sources
  • Secondary sources
Published online: 18 November 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.317.03cla
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