Accessing politeness axes: forms of address and terms of reference in early English correspondence

Abstract

There are certain areas of study where present-day pragmatics can learn from history. This article focuses on the socio-pragmatic aspects of forms of address and terms of reference in late 16th-century English correspondence. The aim of the study is to explore the extent to which the use of forms of address and reference, and the factors which influence their choice, can be seen to have any general trends. A further goal is to relate these trends in historical data to such contemporary views as Brown and Levinson’s [Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987] politeness theory, Comrie’s [Linguistic politeness axes: speaker‐addressee, speaker‐referent, speaker‐bystander. Pragmatics Microfiche 1.7: A3, Department of Linguistics, University of Cambridge, 1976] politeness axes, and Bell’s [Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13, 145‐204] audience design. The material itself, the Corpus of Early English Correspondence (CEEC), gives a unique opportunity to explore the influence of factors like relative power and social distance on the use of forms of address and reference in the highly stratified society of the Renaissance period. The study shows that referential terms are often derived from the range of direct address formulae. In direct address, when the social status of either the addressee or the referent is very high, it seems to override the influence of social distance. In reference, the reasons for the choice of an appropriate term are more complex, and the parameters set for, e.g., positive and negative politeness can no longer be seen as equally valid. # 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.