“Yf ye wyll bergayne wullen cloth or othir marchandise...”

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Becker

This paper is based on a corpus of textbook dialogues which were used to teach the basics of English and French in early modern times. I aim to show the relevance of this genre for historical pragmatics. For this purpose, I refer to extra-linguistic aspects such as function, content and target group of these written dialogues which claim to represent spoken language, and I explain why these aspects are likely to indicate a high degree of pragmatic authenticity. My paper also aims to analyse the verbal interaction represented in the model dialogues. I will focus on sales talk, a discourse type which is a typical element of the phrasebooks and a relevant feature of communication at a time when commercial activities had an increasing social impact. The analysis of the main components reveals that the dialogues are highly standardised but not totally fixed; they offer their users a (restricted) inventory of linguistic devices to negotiate successfully. However, a discourse analytical approach is not sufficient to explain the interaction between buyer and seller. I therefore propose that the pragmatic concept of “face work” is the determining force in the process of bargaining. Furthermore, the analysis of the textbook dialogues illustrates the value of combining very different approaches and levels of analysis.

Author(s):  
Elia Nathan Bravo

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. On the one hand, it offers a general analysis of stigmas (a person has one when, in virtue of its belonging to a certain group, such as that of women, homosexuals, etc., he or she is subjugated or persecuted). On the other hand, I argue that stigmas are “invented”. More precisely, I claim that they are not descriptive of real inequalities. Rather, they are socially created, or invented in a lax sense, in so far as the real differences to which they refer are socially valued or construed as negative, and used to justify social inequalities (that is, the placing of a person in the lower positions within an economic, cultural, etc., hierarchy), or persecutions. Finally, I argue that in some cases, such as that of the witch persecution of the early modern times, we find the extreme situation in which a stigma was invented in the strict sense of the word, that is, it does not have any empirical content.


Author(s):  
Brandon Shaw

Romeo’s well-known excuse that he cannot dance because he has soles of lead is demonstrative of the autonomous volitional quality Shakespeare ascribes to body parts, his utilization of humoral somatic psychology, and the horizontally divided body according to early modern dance practice and theory. This chapter considers the autonomy of and disagreement between the body parts and the unruliness of the humors within Shakespeare’s dramas, particularly Romeo and Juliet. An understanding of the body as a house of conflicting parts can be applied to the feet of the dancing body in early modern times, as is evinced not only by literary texts, but dance manuals as well. The visuality dominating the dance floor provided opportunity for social advancement as well as ridicule, as contemporary sources document. Dance practice is compared with early modern swordplay in their shared approaches to the training and social significance of bodily proportion and rhythm.


1977 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Earl J. Hamilton

Wars in early modern times, although frequent, generated little price inflation because of their limited demands on real resources. The invention of paper currency and the resort to deficit financing to pay for wars changed that situation. In recent centuries wars have been the principal causes of inflation, although since World War II programs of social welfare unmatched by offsetting taxation have also fueled inflationary flames.


The history of war is also a history of its justification. The contributions to this book argue that the justification of war rarely happens as empty propaganda. While it is directed at mobilizing support and reducing resistance, it is not purely instrumental. Rather, the justification of force is part of an incessant struggle over what is to count as justifiable behaviour in a given historical constellation of power, interests, and norms. This way, the justification of specific wars interacts with international order as a normative frame of reference for dealing with conflict. The justification of war shapes this order and is being shaped by it. As the justification of specific wars entails a critique of war in general, the use of force in international relations has always been accompanied by political and scholarly discourses on its appropriateness. In much of the pertinent literature the dominating focus is on theoretical or conceptual debates as a mirror of how international normative orders evolve. In contrast, the focus of the present volume is on theory and political practice as sources for the re- and de-construction of the way in which the justification of war and international order interact. The book offers a unique collection of papers exploring the continuities and changes in war discourses as they respond to and shape normative orders from early modern times to the present. It comprises contributions from International Law, History and International Relations and from Western and non-Western perspectives.


2013 ◽  
Vol 671-674 ◽  
pp. 2285-2289
Author(s):  
Jing Luo ◽  
Wei Min Guo ◽  
Ying Huang

Given the research findings concerning the Sino-west hybrid style buildings in early modern China are abundant but are lack of systemic pectination, this paper analyzes the related research findings from an integrative and classified perspective, especially makes a detailed review on the early modern vernacular architecture, which possess the characteristic of local evolution, and the national style of Chinese buildings in early modern times. Furthermore, the paper points out deficiencies in previous researches in the early modern Sino-west hybrid style buildings, and puts forward the urgent problems must be solved.


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