The Nonverbal Shift in Early Modern English Conversation (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series)
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Co
Published: January 18, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 278
ISBN-13: 9789027253972
Subjects: Language & Linguistics; Language Arts & Disciplines; English; Language; Linguistics; Discourse analysis; Early modern, 1500-1700; English language; Great Britain; Prosodic analysis
Description: "This is the first historical investigation on the nonverbal component of conversation. For the courtly society of 16th and 17th century England, it is argued that a drift appeared toward an increased use of prosodic means of expression at the expense of gestural means. Direct evidence is provided by courtesy books and personal documents of the time, indirect evidence by developments in the English lexicon. The rationale of the argument is cognitively grounded; given the integral role of gestures in thinking-for-speaking, it rests on an isomorphism between gestural and prosodic behavior that is established semiotically and elaborated by insights from neurocognitive frequency theory and task dynamics. The proposal is rounded off by an illustration from present-day conversational data and the proof of its adaptability to current theories of language change. The cross-disciplinary approach addresses all those interested in (historical) pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, cultural semantics, semiotics, or language change."--Jacket.