Cover not available
Part of
Voices Past and Present - Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts: In honor of Merja Kytö
Edited by Ewa Jonsson and Tove Larsson
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 97] 2020
► pp. 11–30

Chapter 2
Pragmatic noise in Shakespeare’s plays

 | Lancaster University
 | Lancaster University
Pragmatic noise, first coined in Culpeper and Kytö (2010), refers to the semi-natural noises, such as ah, oh, and ha, that have evolved to express a range of pragmatic and discoursal functions. Taking advantage of the regularised spellings and grammatically tagged texts of the Enhanced Shakespearean Corpus (Culpeper 2019), this study considers the frequency, distribution and functions of pragmatic noise across Shakespeare’s plays and characters. It reveals and discusses, for example, the facts that: whilst particular types of pragmatic noise maintain a steady presence across all the plays, there is variation in token density; female characters have a much greater density of pragmatic noise tokens compared with male; and characters in the middle of the social hierarchy use pragmatic noise particularly often.
Keywords: characterisation, corpus-based methods, pragmatic noise, Shakespeare, social groups
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Pragmatic noise
  • 3.Data and method
    • 3.1The Enhanced Shakespearean Corpus
    • 3.2A method for pragmatic noise extraction
  • 4.Distribution of pragmatic noise across Shakespeare’s plays
    • 4.1Overview of distribution by play
    • 4.2Discussion of distribution by play
  • 5.Distribution of pragmatic noise across Shakespeare’s social groups of characters
    • 5.1Overview of distribution by social groups
    • 5.2Discussion of distribution by social groups
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 5 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.97.02cul
References (12)
References
Ameka, F. 1992. Interjections: The universal yet neglected part of speech. Journal of Pragmatics 18(2–3): 101–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Archer, D. & Culpeper, J. 2003. Sociopragmatic annotation: New directions and possibilities in historical corpus linguistics. In Corpus Linguistics by the Lune: A Festschrift for Geoffrey Leech [Łódź Studies in Language 8], A. Wilson, P. Rayson & T. McEnery (eds), 37–58. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Bentley, T. 1582. The sixt lampe of virginitie conteining a mirrour for maidens and matrons […]. At the three cranes in the vintree, by Thomas Dawson and Henry Denham, for the assignes of William Seres. London. (STC 1894).Google Scholar
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. & Finegan, E. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
Boas, F. S. 1910. Shakspere and his Predecessors. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Caffi, C. & Janney, R. W. 1994. Toward a pragmatics of emotive communication. Journal of Pragmatics 22(3–4): 325–373. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culpeper, J. 2019. Lead compiler of the Enhanced Shakespearean Corpus, part of the Encyclopedia of Shakespeare’s Language Project (AHRC grant reference AH/N002415/1). Lancaster: Lancaster University.Google Scholar
Culpeper, J. & Kytö, M. 2010. Early Modern English Dialogues: Spoken Interaction as Writing. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Gwalther, R. & Bridges, J. 1572. An hundred, threescore and fiftene homelyes or sermons [...]. By Henrie Denham, dwelling in Pater noster rowe, at the sign of the starre. London. (STC 25013).Google Scholar
Jucker, A. H. 2002. Discourse markers in Early Modern English. In Alternative Histories of English, R. Watts & P. Trudgill (eds), 210–230. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Person, R. F. 2009. “Oh” in Shakespeare: A conversation analytic approach. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 10(1): 84–107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taavitsainen, I. 1999. Personality and styles of affect in The Canterbury Tales . In Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake, G. Lester (ed.), 218–234. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Evans, Mel
2023. Interjections and individual style: A study of restoration dramatic language. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 32:3 ► pp. 297 ff. DOI logo
Brown, Lucien, Hyunji Kim & Bodo Winter
2022. Is It Polite to Hiss?: Nonverbal Sound Objects as Markers of (Im)politeness in Korean. Frontiers in Communication 7 DOI logo
Lutzky, Ursula
2021. The sociopragmatic nature of interjections in Early Modern English drama comedy. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 22:2 ► pp. 225 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.