quotations as a linguistic phenomenon

294 Pages·2016·6.09 MB·English

by  Sixta Quassdorf

"A little more than kin"
Quotations as a linguistic
phenomenon
A study based on quotations from
Shakespeare's Hamlet
Sixta Quassdorf
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Universitätsbibliothek
New Ideas in Human Interaction

"A little more than kin"
Quotations as a linguistic phenomenon
A study based on quotations from
Shakespeare's Hamlet

Dissertation
zur Erlangung der Würde einer Doktorin der Philosophie
vorgelegt der Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät
der Universität Basel

von
Sixta Quaßdorf

Freiburg 2016
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg / Universitätsbibliothek
Genehmigt von der Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät der Universität Basel,
auf Antrag von Prof. Dr. Annelies Häcki Buhofer und Prof. Dr. Heike Behrens

Basel, den 20. Januar 2016

Die Dekanin Prof. Dr. Barbara Schellewald
For W.

Table of contents
List of figures v
List of tables vii
List of abbreviations ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Preliminary considerations on what is a quotation? 4
1.1.1 The ordinary concept of quotation in the OED 4
1.1.2 A data-based broad concept of quotation 7
1.2 Methodological considerations 8
1.2.1 The nature of the data and the impact of the quoted text on its quotations 8
1.2.2 The sources of the data and their method of retrieval 10
1.3 Structure of the thesis 16
2 The source of this our study – Shakespeare's times,
his art and the question of quotability 20
2.1 Words, words, words – Shakespeare's vocabulary 21
2.2 Phrases, phrases, phrases – Shakespearean passages and idiomatic
expressions 23
2.3 Shakespeare's fame 25
2.4 Sweet smoke of rhetoric – Shakespeare's rhetoric 26
2.5 Suit the word to the action – The pragmatics of Shakespeare's language 29
2.6 Shakespeare's rhetoric and quotability 31
2.6.1 Positive text-inherent factors for quotability 31
2.6.2 O, this is counter – Inhibiting text-inherent factors for quotability 34
2.6.3 To be, or not to be – An empirical test 36
2.7 Concluding remarks 38
3 Scholarly concepts of quotation 41
3.1 Quotations in the philosophy of language 41
3.1.1 "A certain anomalous feature" – Quine's Proper Name Theory 41
3.1.2 Quotation's journey from scientific to ordinary language –
Davidson's Demonstrative Theory 43
3.1.3 Quotation's journey from semantics to pragmatics –
Saka's Disambiguated Ostention Theory 44
3.1.4 Summarising remarks 46
3.2 Quotations in literary studies 47
3.2.1 The realm of intertextuality studies 48
3.2.2 Definitions of quotation and allusion in intertextuality studies 51
3.2.3 Summarising remarks 55
3.3 Quotations in linguistics 58
3.3.1 Quotations as reported speech 58
3.3.2 Quotations in the language of newspapers – Functional studies 59
3.3.3 Quotations in phraseology 61
3.4 Concluding remarks 65
4 Marking and the role of linguistic knowledge for the identification
of quotations 67
4.1 Global and local marking in fiction 68
4.1.1 Helbig's global account of marking 69
4.1.2 The clue-based approach to marking in HyperHamlet 72
4.2 Local marking in fiction and non-fiction 74
4.2.1 Typographical marking – The quintessential function of quotation marks 75
4.2.2 Other typographical markers 78
4.2.3 Metalinguistic markers 79
4.2.4 Name markers 85
4.2.5 Stylistic markers 91
4.3 Frequencies of markers for quotation as recorded in HyperHamlet 95
4.3.1 Typographical, metalinguistic and stylistic markers in detail 97
4.3.2 Marking for author and work in detail 98
4.4 Summary 101
5 Archaisms in practice – Empirical observations 104
5.1 The use of archaisms in The lady protests too much, methinks 105
5.2 The French word order of to the manner born and its function in discourse 115
5.3 The role of thy in Frailty, thy name is woman 119
5.4 Concluding remarks 124
ii
6 Similarity relations and the role of textual knowledge for the
identification of quotations 126
6.1 Textual knowledge as the main basis for identifying, evaluating,
describing and classifying quotations 127
6.1.1 Thematic quotations 129
6.1.2 Onomastic quotations 134
6.1.3 Verbal quotations 137
6.2 Additional supportive knowledge for the evaluation of quotations 151
6.3 Concluding remarks 154
7 Verbal quotations and phraseology 158
7.1 Issues in phraseology 161
7.2 Definitions of phrasemes 162
7.3 Similarities and differences between quotations and phrasemes 164
7.3.1 Form – Polylexicality and fixedness 166
7.3.2 Meaning – Idiomaticity 173
7.3.3 Grammatical status – Familiarity and conventionalisation 177
7.4 Concluding remarks 184
8 Quotations from Hamlet in the English phrasicon I:
General data on hoist petards, methodical madnesses,
kind cruelties and honourable breaches 187
8.1 General comments on the analysed quotations 188
8.1.1 Comments on For 'tis sport to have the engineer / Hoist with his own petard (III, iv) 188
8.1.2 Comments on Though this be madness, yet there is method in't (II, ii) 189
8.1.3 Comments on I must be cruel, only to be kind (III, iv) 190
8.1.4 Comments on It is a custom, more honour'd in the breach than
the observance (I, iv) 192
8.2 Finding the data – Search procedures and the range of variability 193
8.2.1 Searching for hoist/petard 194
8.2.2 Searching for method/madness 196
8.2.3 Searching for cruel/kind 198
8.2.4 Searching for honoured/breach 199
8.3 Quantitative overview 200
iii
9 Quotations from Hamlet in the English phrasicon II:
Pattern formation and discourse distribution 204
9.1 Formal patterns 204
9.1.1 Formal patterns of quoting: hoist/petard 205
9.1.2 Formal patterns of quoting: method/madness 211
9.1.3 Formal patterns of quoting: cruel/kind 216
9.1.4 Formal patterns of quoting: honoured/breach 219
9.2 Semantic patterns 224
9.2.1 Semantic patterns of hoist/petard 224
9.2.2 Semantic patterns of honoured/breach 226
9.2.3 Semantic aspects of method/madness and cruel/kind 229
9.3 Discursive distribution 230
9.3.1 Discursive distribution of hoist/petard 231
9.3.2 Discursive distribution of method/madness 234
9.3.3 Discursive distribution of cruel/kind 236
9.3.4 Discursive distribution of honoured/breach 238
9.4 Summary 241
10 Conclusions and outlook 244
Appendix: The 50 most frequently quoted lines from Hamlet in HYHA 253
References and resources 254
References 254
Text collections, databases and further resources 266
Index of authors 268
Index of subjects 271
iv