none 10.1075/cilt.364.03hye John Benjamins Publishing Company John Benjamins Publishing Company 1757 159179459 4753796 1419350 202507022008000051 10.1075 2025-07-02T18:10:47Z 2024-03-23T05:14:10Z 0 0304-0763 10.1075/cilt https://benjamins.com/ catalog/cilt Luisella Caon Leiden University https://ror.org/027bh9e22 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0520-5198 Moragh S. Gordon Leiden University https://ror.org/027bh9e22 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8214-6959 Thijs Porck Leiden University https://ror.org/027bh9e22 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8537-6909 Pragmatics, prescriptivism and text typesSelected papers from the 21st ICEHL This volume brings together contributions selected from papers delivered at the 21st International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL, Leiden 2021). The chapters deal with aspects of language use throughout the history of English, including efforts to prescribe and regulate language in texts that share specific forms, functions and audiences. They feature both quantitative and qualitative analyses of changing language use, often in relation to trends of language advice in such metalinguistic works as grammars, spelling books and usage guides. The authors showcase work on pragmatics and prescriptivism (understatement between Middle and Late Modern English, capitalization of common nouns from Early to Late Modern English and the use of stigmatized grammatical variants in eighteenth-century plays), specific text types (case studies of political, legal and medical English) and the language of late modern letters (diachronic stylistic changes, letter-copying practices, the role of letter-writing manuals and changing spelling practices). This volume will be of interest to those working on pragmatics, prescriptivism and sociolinguistics of English, historical linguistics, language change, computational historical linguistics and related sub-disciplines. 364 4 4 2024 3 23 2024 9789027214720 9789027246998 John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam 10.1075/cilt.364 http://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027246998 https://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/9789027246998.pdf https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1075/cilt.364/html James Hyett Independent https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5130-4934 Carol Percy University of Toronto https://ror.org/03dbr7087 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9871-1745 Eighteenth-century female playwrights’ use of you was and you were Abstract This paper extends our previous study of you was and you were in eighteenth-century English drama, examining trends following Robert Lowth’s proscription of you was in his grammar ( 1762 ) and complementing Tieken-Boon van Ostade’s (2002) and Laitinen’s (2009) studies of different genres. Comparing close readings of plays by four female playwrights to the same writers’ novels, we find you was used increasingly after 1762 to indicate negative emotion and moments of dramatic significance, not unlike contemporary theatrical thou ( Nonomiya 2021 ). Qualitatively, we confirm that you was had specifically theatrical functions, signalling deception and provocation (often by younger characters) and loss of control (often by older characters). We identify these disparate but recurrent meanings and personae with Eckert’s (2008) concept of the indexical field. 4 4 2024 3 23 2024 60 84 10.1075/cilt.364.03hye https://benjamins.com/catalog/cilt.364.03hye https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1075/cilt.364.03hye/html 10.1016/S0271-5309(03)00012-0 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Amory 2009 Lennox [née Ramsay], (Barbara) Charlotte (1730/31?–1804), novelist and writer 10.1075/ahs.3.07aue Le barbier de Séville, ou la précaution inutile, comédie en 4 actes, par M. de Beaumarchais Beaumarchais 3 1775 ProQuest biographies Blachnio 2014 Celesia, Dorothea, 1738–1790 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Breen 2004 Celesia [née Mallet], Dorothea (bap. 1738, d. 1790), playwright and poet Almida, a tragedy Celesia 1771 Eastward hoe. As it was playd in the Black-friers. By The Children of her Maiesties Reuels. Made by George Chapman. Ben: Ionson. Ioh: Marston Chapman 1605 Early English Books Online TCP EEBO = Text Creation Partnership 2022 Eighteenth Century Collections Online ECCO = Gale Cengage Learning 2022 Eighteenth Century Collections Online TCP ECCO = Text Creation Partnership 2022 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00374.x Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Eger 2009 Griffith, Elizabeth (1727–1793), playwright and writer Power plays: Women playwrights of the late eighteenth century and the politics of adaptation Finberg 2001 Neuphilologische Mitteilungen Fitzmaurice 113 3 293 2012 Social factors and language change in eighteenth-century England: The case of multiple negation Gallica = Gallica. https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/en/content/accueil-en Le bourru bienfaisant, comédie en 3 Actes et en prose, de M. Goldoni Goldoni 1771 The platonic wife, a comedy Griffith 1765 The double mistake Griffith 1766 The delicate distress, a novel: In letters Griffith [1769] 1787 The school for rakes: A comedy Griffith 1769 The history of Lady Barton: A novel, in letters Griffith 1771 The story of Lady Juliana Harley: A novel, in letters Griffith 1776 A wife in the right Griffith 1772 The barber of Seville, Or the useless precaution; A comedy in four acts Griffith 1776 The times: A comedy Griffith 1780 A series of genuine letters between Henry and Frances Griffith 1757 10.1017/9781108578684 10.1386/stap.28.1.23_1 10.1075/cilt.358.11hye 10.1007/978-3-030-37651-2_3 10.1075/pbns.183.12lai The life of Harriot Stuart Lennox 1751 The female quixote Lennox 1752 The female quixote Lennox 1752 The memoirs of the Countess of Berci. Taken from the French by the author of The Female Quixote Lennox 1756 Philander Lennox 1758 Henrietta Lennox 1758 Sophia Lennox 1762 The sister: A comedy Lennox 1769 Old city manners Lennox 1775 Euphemia Lennox 1790 Hermione, or the orphan sisters Lennox 1791 The history of Sir George Warrington: or the political Quixote Lennox 1797 LION = Literature Online. 1996–2022. Advanced Search. A short introduction to English grammar: with critical notes Lowth 1762 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography De la Mahotière 2004 Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743–1809), playwright and poet The citizen Murphy 1763 Know your own mind Murphy 1778 The works of Arthur Murphy… in seven volumes Murphy 1786 News from Parnassus Enregisterment of thou in eighteenth-century plays Nonomiya 2021 The rudiments of English grammar; adapted to the use of schools. With observations on style Priestley 1761 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Ross 2004 Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724–1766), novelist and playwright Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Sambrook 2004 Mallet [formerly Malloch], David (1701/2?–1765), poet Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Sherbo 2006 Cumberland, Richard (1732–1811), playwright and novelist Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph Sheridan 1761 The discovery Sheridan 1763 The dupe, a comedy Sheridan 1764 The history of Nourjahad Sheridan 1767 Conclusion of the memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, as prepared for the press by the late editor of the former part Sheridan [1767] 1770 10.1075/sihols.63 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Thomson 2004 Sheridan, Thomas (1719?–1788), actor and orthoepist Of dyuersitie & chaunge of langage Tieken-Boon van Ostade 88 2002 You was and eighteenth-century normative grammar Grammar, rhetoric and usage in English: Preposition placement 1500–1900 Yáñez-Bouza 2015