Wilt thou be lord of all the world? Modals and persuasion in Shakespeare
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Date
2014
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
Persuasion is defined as human communication designed to influence the judgements and actions
of others (Simons & Jones 2011). The purpose of this research is to analyse the discourse of
persuasion in Shakespeare from the perspective of historical pragmatics (Jucker & Taavitsainen
2010), with particular attention to modals employed as part of the strategies. The modals under
investigation are proximal and distal central modals, SHALL/SHOULD, WILL/WOULD,
CAN/COULD, MAY/MIGHT, MUST, and the contracted form ’LL. The data for the present
study is drawn from The Riverside Shakespeare (Evans 1997) and the concordance by Spevack
(1968-1980). The corpus includes both cases where the persuasion attempt is successful and
unsuccessful.
After defining persuasion in comparison to speech acts, quantitative analysis reveals how
frequently the persuader and the persuadee employ a modal regarding each type of modality and
speech act. Further analysis shows in what manner the persuader and the persuadee interact with
each other in discourse resorting to the following strategies: modality, proximal and distal meanings
of the modal, speech act of each utterance including a modal, and use of the same modal or
switching modals in interaction.
This research thus clarifies how effectively speakers attempted to persuade others in interactions,
shedding light on communication mechanisms in the past.
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Sponsor
This research is supported by a faculty grant from Hamamatsu University School of Medicine.
Keywords
persuasion, modal, Shakespeare, speech act, historical pragmatics
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 2014 vol. 49.1, pp. 5-30
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0081-6272