DIACHRONIC PRAGMATICS; Editorial page; Title page; LCC data; Dedication; Acknowledgments; Table of contents; Chapter 1. English Illocutionary History: A Methodological Introduction; Chapter 2. Flyting and Sounding the Agonistic Insult; Chapter 3. Rationalist Prescriptions for Shall and Will; Chapter 4. The Expanding Discourse of the English Promise; Chapter 5. Subjectification in the Common Curse; Chapter 6. Good-bye: The Pragmatic Reanalysis of the Close; Chapter 7. It's Nothing to be Sneezed At: Discursization in the Polite Bless You!
Summary
The purpose of Diachronic Pragmatics is to exemplify historical pragmatics in its twofold sense of constituting both a subject matter and a methodology. This book demonstrates how diachronic pragmatics, with its complementary diachronic function-to-form mapping and diachronic form-to-function mapping, can be used to trace pragmatic developments within the English language. Through a set of case studies it explores the evolution of such speech acts as promises, curses, blessings, and greetings and such speech events as flyting and sounding. Collectively these "illocutionary biographies" manifes
