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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. 79–94

Chapter 6
Interjections in early popular literature

Stereotypes and innovation

| University of Helsinki

Early modern jests and drama provide excellent materials for studies on speech-based language. This article focuses on a core group of interjections, alas, lo and O, and assesses their use from a diachronic perspective. The method of study is qualitative stylistic analysis and the data comes mostly from the popular genres of the Helsinki Corpus (HC) and the Corpus of English Dialogues (CED). Genuine feelings are depicted in romances and tragedies, but in popular genres these items express stereotypical reactions to awkward situations, contributing to audience involvement. Innovative uses emerge with novel stylistic effects in the early seventeenth century.

Keywords: emotions, genre, context, convention, humour
Article outline
  • 1.Preliminaries and research questions
  • 2.Data and method of the study
  • 3.Beginnings of the tradition and genre continuity
  • 4.Definitions and previous studies
  • 5.Interjections with genuine feelings versus to “[f]lout & mock & Iest”
    • 5.1 Alas
      • 5.1.1Genuine feelings
      • 5.1.2Stereotypical reactions
    • 5.2 Lo
      • 5.2.1Comical overtones
    • 5.3 O
      • 5.3.1Conventional uses
      • 5.3.2Innovative uses
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.97.06taa
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