Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English PDF
Preview Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English
Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English Pragmatics & Beyond New Series (P&BNS) Pragmatics & Beyond New Series is a continuation of Pragmatics & Beyond and its Companion Series. The New Series offers a selection of high quality work covering the full richness of Pragmatics as an interdisciplinary field, within language sciences. Editor Associate Editor Anita Fetzer Andreas H. Jucker University of Würzburg University of Zurich Founding Editors Jacob L. Mey Herman Parret Jef Verschueren University of Southern Belgian National Science Belgian National Science Denmark Foundation, Universities of Foundation, Louvain and Antwerp University of Antwerp Editorial Board Robyn Carston Sachiko Ide Deborah Schiffrin University College London Japan Women’s University Georgetown University Thorstein Fretheim Kuniyoshi Kataoka Paul Osamu Takahara University of Trondheim Aichi University Kobe City University of Miriam A. Locher Foreign Studies John C. Heritage University of California at Los Universität Basel Sandra A. Thompson Angeles Sophia S.A. Marmaridou University of California at University of Athens Santa Barbara Susan C. Herring Indiana University Srikant Sarangi Teun A. van Dijk Cardiff University Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Masako K. Hiraga Barcelona St. Paul’s (Rikkyo) University Marina Sbisà University of Trieste Yunxia Zhu The University of Queensland Volume 195 Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English Edited by Päivi Pahta, Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi and Minna Palander-Collin Social Roles and Language Practices in Late Modern English Edited by Päivi Pahta University of Tampere Minna Nevala University of Helsinki Arja Nurmi University of Helsinki Minna Palander-Collin University of Helsinki John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of 8 American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Social roles and language practices in late modern English / edited by Paivi Pahta...[et al.]. p. cm. (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, issn 0922-842X ; v. 195) “Social roles and language practices in late modern English, organized as a workshop in the Third Late Modern English Conference in Leiden in August 2007.” Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. English language--18th century. 2. English language--19th century. 3. English language- -Social aspects--England. 4. English language--Usage--England. 5. England-- Languages--18th century. 6. England--Languages--19th century. I. Pahta, Päivi. PE1083.S65 2010 420.9’09033--dc22 2010006374 isbn 978 90 272 5440 5 (Hb ; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 8823 3 (Eb) © 2010 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa Table of contents Preface vii Languagepracticesintheconstructionofsocialroles inLateModernEnglish 1 Päivi Pahta, Minna Palander-Collin, Minna Nevala and Arja Nurmi MrSpectator,identityandsocialrolesinanearlyeighteenth-century communityofpracticeandtheperiodicaldiscoursecommunity 29 Susan M. Fitzmaurice Howeighteenth-centurybookreviewersbecamelanguageguardians 55 Carol Percy “ifYouthinkmeobstinateIcan’thelpit”:Exploringtheepistolary stylesandsocialrolesofElizabethMontaguandSarahScott 87 Anni Sairio Reportingandsocialroleconstructionineighteenth-century personalcorrespondence 111 Minna Palander-Collin and Minna Nevala Preacher,scholar,brother,friend:Socialrolesandcode-switching inthewritingsofThomasTwining 135 Arja Nurmi and Päivi Pahta Thesocialspaceofaneighteenth-centurygoverness:Modality andreferenceintheprivatelettersandjournalsofAgnesPorter 163 Arja Nurmi and Minna Nevala Buildingtrustthrough(self-)appraisalinnineteenth-century businesscorrespondence 191 Marina Dossena vi SocialRolesandLanguagePracticesinLateModernEnglish Good-naturedfellowsandpoormothers:Definingsocialroles inBritishnineteenth-centurychildren’sliterature 211 Hanna Andersdotter Sveen Nameindex 229 Subjectindex 235 Preface Theideaforthisbookcamefromtheworkcarriedoutinourjointproject,“So- cio-culturalRealityandLanguagePracticesinLateModernEngland”(SoReaL), fundedbytheUniversityofHelsinkiin2005–2007.Theprojectexaminedcommu- nicationpatternsineighteenth-andnineteenth-centuryEnglishpublicandprivate writings,developingandtestingcorpus-aidedmethodsinsociopragmaticanalysis fordiachronicpurposes.Onespecificareathatinterestedusintheinterplayof languageandthesocialwasthevariouswaysinwhichwritersusedtheirlinguistic resourcestopositionthemselvesinrelationtotheirinterlocutorsinthetexts.The notionof“socialrole”begantoappearsignificantandusefulasoneofthefactorsin operationalizingtheanalysisoflanguagepracticesofwritersofpastperiods. Withthisconceptinmind,weinvitedagroupofscholarstoathink-tank onSocialRolesandLanguagePracticesinLateModernEnglish,organizedas aworkshopintheThirdLateModernEnglishConferenceinLeideninAugust 2007.Theeventprovedfruitfulandinspiring,aswitnessedbythisbook.Sixofthe eightempiricalstudiesincludedherearebasedonpapersinitiallypresentedin theLeidenworkshop,andtwoarticlesweresolicitedafterwardstocompletethe volume.Thearticlesexaminelanguagepracticesinavarietyofcommunicative situations,anddrawonarangeoftheoreticalandmethodologicalapproachesin theinterfacebetweensocialsciencesandlanguageanalysis,combiningasocial andanthropologicalapproachwith(corpus)linguistics.Togethertheyprovidea richviewofthemultip licityofthemeansbywhichlanguageusersofthelatemod- ernperiodcouldanddidconstructandperformtheirsocialpersonaeinwritten texts.Wehopethatthesestudiesalsoinspireotherresearcherstofollowsuitand explorethedynamicsoflanguageandsocietyinidentityworkandinteractionin otherwrittenmaterials. Wewouldliketothankthecontributorsfortheirexcellentco-operationin thedifferentstagesofthebookproject,andtheparticipantsoftheLeidenwork- shopforinspiringdiscussions.WethanktheanonymousBenjaminsreviewers fortheircommentsonthemanuscript.AveryspecialwordofthankstoJan Blommaert,JonathanCulpeper,MarinaDossenaandIngridTieken-Boonvan Ostade,whotooktimetoreadpartsofthemanuscriptandcommentonthe introductorychapter.WearethankfultoAnitaFetzerforacceptingthevolumeto viii SocialRolesandLanguagePracticesinLateModernEnglish thePragmaticsandBeyondNewSeries,toIsjaConenandtheBenjaminsteamfor co-operationintheeditorialprocess,andtoMikkoHakala,SaijaPeuronenand HeidiÄijäläforhelpinpreparingthemanuscript. Wegratefullyacknowledgethesupportwehavereceivedduringtheproduc- tionofthisvolumefromtheprojectson“Socio-culturalRealityandLanguage PracticesinLateModernEngland”,“MultilingualismasaProblematicResource”, “WeandOthers:TheSocio-pragmaticsofReferentialTermsandExpressionsin EarlyandLateModernEnglish1500–1900”andthefollowinginstitutions:Uni- versityofHelsinki,HelsinkiCollegiumforAdvancedStudies,ResearchUnitfor Variation,ContactsandChangeinEnglish(VARIENG),UniversityofJyväskylä, AcademyofFinland,andUniversityofTampere. Theeditors December2009 Language practices in the construction of social roles in Late Modern English PäiviPahta,MinnaPalander-Collin,MinnaNevala andArjaNurmi UniversitiesofTampereandHelsinki 1. Social roles and language practices Socialrolesarepartofthesocialpersonaethatmakeupaperson’sidentity,to- getherwiththeirsocialstatus,positioninsociety,relationshipsandinstitutional andotherrelevantcommunityidentitiesonemayattempttoassignorclaimin thecourseofsociallife(Ochs1993:288).Likeidentities,socialrolescanbeseen asparticularformsofsemioticpotential,organizedinarepertoire,andconstruct- edandenactedbylinguisticandothersemioticpracticesinsocialinteraction (Blommaert2005:207).Therelationshipbetweensocialrolesandlanguageuseis intriguing.Particularsocialrolescanimplyparticularlinguisticchoicesthatare appropriatetoenactthoseroles,butatthesametimeindividualscanmakelin- guisticchoicesandmobilizepartsoftheirlinguisticrepertoiretoindex,negotiate andconstructtheirsocialroles. Thestudiesinthi svolumeaddresstherelationshipofsocialrolesandlan- guageuseintextswrittenineighteenth-andnineteenth-centuryBritain.They allexaminelanguageuseassocialpractice,socialbehaviourandhumaninterac- tion–ascommunicationbywhichpeoplebuild,indexandmaintainsocialrela- tionshipsandinfluenceotherpeopleinvariousways.Thefocusisonthe“iden- tity”and“relational”functionsoflanguage,which,inadditiontothe“ideational” functions,arepresentinalltextsandcommunicativesituations. 2 PäiviPahta,MinnaPalander-Collin,MinnaNevalaandArjaNurmi 1.1 Theoriesofsocialrolesinsocialsciences Thenotionof“role”,derivingfromthetheatre,begantoappearinthesocial scienceliteratureinthe1920sand1930s(BiddleandThomas1966),andhas sincethenbeenwidelystudiedandtheorizedinsociologyandsocialpsychology. Therearetwobasicperspectivesonrolesinsocialsciences,structural-function- alistandsymbolic-interactionist,whichusetheterm“role”intwodifferentbut relatedsenses. Instructural-functionalistapproachestoroles,growingfromtheworkof anthropologistRalphLinton(1936),rolesareattachedtosocio-culturalexpec- tationsandknowledgeschemata(Ribeiro2006:50).Theyaredefinedassetsof behaviouralexpectationsassociatedwithgivenpositionsinthesocialstructure, andseenasfunctionalforthesocialsystemswithinwhichtheyareembedded (Ashforth2000:3–4).Inthisapproach,aroleisalargelyfixedattribute.Rolesare createdbysocietyasawhole;theyarerelativelyinflexibleanduniversallyagreed upontaken-for-grantedpositions,learnedthroughthefamily,peergroup,school andwork(Haslett1990:332).Individualstakeontheirdesignatedrolesand“per- form”them,attemptingtofulfiltheirrolesbydoingwhatisexpectedinthem.In additiontoexpectations,thenotionsofnorms,patterns,rightsandobligations arealsoimportant. Accordingtostructural-functionalistroletheory,socialrolescanbeexperi- encedandunderstoodintermsofspecificrolerelationships(e.g.parent-child, doctor-patient,teacher-student),membershipsingeneralsocialcategories(e.g. parents,medicalprofessionals,academics),orasmoreorlessinstitutionalized positionsingivensocialstructures(e.g.motherinafamily,doctorinahospital, professorinauniversity).Groupsofinterlockingroles,interdependentorcom- plementary,createsocialinstitutions.Insocialinstitutions,variousmoreorless directlyinterlinkedroleswillformrolesets,wheretherolestendtobedifferen- tiatedbyfunctionand power.Becauseofthisdifferentiation,thenatureofthe interactionbetweenanytworolesinarolesettendstobemoreorlessunique. AccordingtoAshforth(2000:6–7),thenotionofdifferentiationhasseveralim- plicationsfortheenactmentofarole.Firstly,itsuggeststhataroleidentityis largelydefinedbyitsroleset,andassuch,complementaryrolesserveasfoils foroneanother.Theroleidentityofthedoctor,forexample,islargelydefined bythecomplementaryroleofthepatient.Second,thenotionofdifferentiation suggeststhatanygivenroleismultifacetedinthesensethataroleoccupantwill displayacertaincharacterizationoftheroletowardeachmemberoftheroleset. Furthermore,individualshavemultipleroles,sequentialandsimultaneous,that tendtobeboundedbytimeandspaceandimplyinterroletransitionsfromone roletoanother.Someofthesetransitionsaremacroroletransitions,definedas
The list of books you might like
