Book contents
- Politeness in the History of English
- Politeness in the History of English
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- 1 Exploring Politeness in the History of English
- 2 Research Methods and Data Problems
- 3 Medieval Britain
- 4 Terms of Address in Middle English
- 5 Renaissance and Early Modern England
- 6 Terms of Address in Early Modern English
- 7 The Eighteenth Century: The Age of Politeness
- 8 The Eighteenth Century: Educational Literature
- 9 The Rise (and Fall) of Non-imposition Politeness
- 10 Conclusion: Politeness, Manners and Dissimulation
- References
- Index
2 - Research Methods and Data Problems
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2020
- Politeness in the History of English
- Politeness in the History of English
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- 1 Exploring Politeness in the History of English
- 2 Research Methods and Data Problems
- 3 Medieval Britain
- 4 Terms of Address in Middle English
- 5 Renaissance and Early Modern England
- 6 Terms of Address in Early Modern English
- 7 The Eighteenth Century: The Age of Politeness
- 8 The Eighteenth Century: Educational Literature
- 9 The Rise (and Fall) of Non-imposition Politeness
- 10 Conclusion: Politeness, Manners and Dissimulation
- References
- Index
Summary
Historical politeness studies provide specific challenges for the researcher in terms of both methodologies and data. This chapter introduces a distinction between approaches that focus on the use of politeness (i.e. on linguistic elements that convey politeness) and those that focus on the mention of politeness (i.e. on elements that are used to talk about politeness, the metadiscourse of politeness). This distinction is set in relation to the distinction between quantitative and qualitative approaches to politeness, and to the distinction between first-order and second-order approaches. The chapter also discusses the data problems of historical pragmatics in general and historical politeness research in particular, and it describes the shift in such research from apologetic uses of what is seen as imperfect data to an appreciation of the pragmatic potential of a large variety of sources including in particular fictional texts.
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- Politeness in the History of EnglishFrom the Middle Ages to the Present Day, pp. 18 - 31Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020