Genre and literacies: Historical (socio)pragmatics of the 1820 settler petition

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Date

2016

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Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM

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Abstract

In the history of English, the Late Modern period offers a chance to observe rapid developments in petitioning practices as growing literacy rates open up potential access to the contemporary models of written request-making. Still the nature of Late Modern literacies complicates the attempts at written composition and participation in literacy cultures. In addition, spatial and social mobility that characterise European communities in the period not only generate more demand for active literacy, but also entail new factors, expectations and constraints on written communication. Thus the ways in which the Late Modern literacies may be elucidated and accessed through the study of petitions remain at the core of this investigation. The book embarks upon a (socio)pragmatic study of two sets of institutional correspondence surviving in connection to the British government colonisation scheme of the Cape of Good Hope, the 1820 settlement. The data, referred to as the candidate (1819) and colonial collections (1820-25), offer a unique opportunity to observe genre development over a relatively short span of time, to identify the specific aspects of genre change and to connect these to the discourse and language external context. The study focuses on the structural models of petition and issues of authorship, as well as variability of punctuation and aspects of spelling and morpho-syntax in the letters. The analysis makes use of specific digital methodologies, such as the n-gram analysis, as well as purely qualitative methods.

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Keywords

Late Modern English, petition, genre, literacy, historical (socio)pragmatics

Citation

Włodarczyk Matylda. Genre and literacies: Historical (socio)pragmatics of the 1820 settler petition. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. Poznań 2016. Seria Filologia Angielska nr 51. Pp. 393, 16 Figs., 50 Tabs.

ISBN

978-83-232-3068-7

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Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Biblioteka Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego