Table of Contents

1. Historical pragmatics: Communicative patterns of the past; 2. The lack of native speakers: Data problems in historical pragmatics; 3. Excavating usage patterns: Methods in historical pragmatics; 4. "Or I wol crie"out, harrow and "allas!": Discourse markers and interjections; 5. "If thou thoust him some thrice": Terms of address; 6. "Do you wish to insult me?": Speech acts; 7. "For your curteisie": Forms of politeness; 8. The pragmatics of language change: Grammaticalization, subjectification and pragmaticalization; 9. "Take a pounde of sugir and halfe a pounde of tendir roses lyues...": Genres and text types; 10. "I pray thee friend Humfrey, what is phisicke?": Scientific and medical discourse; 11. "Our Letters from the Levant inform us": Historical news discourse; 12. "All of a sudden the bells ceased to chime": Narrative patterns in the course of time; References and glossary.

About the Author

Andreas H. Jucker is Professor of English Linguistics and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zurich. Irma Taavitsainen is Professor of English Linguistics and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zurich.