Bailey Corpus Research Articles

Disgusting, obscene and aggravating language: speech descriptors and the sociopragmatic evaluation of speech in theOld Bailey Corpus

This article deals with the mechanisms that language users employ in historical periods to represent spoken language in writing. I focus on a set of features known asspeech descriptors, which allow users to combine representation and evaluation of thespeech(and, possibly, of thespeaker), such asmost disgustingin ‘he used most disgusting language’. The study shows that such speech descriptors in combination with the lemmalanguageare used for a number of sociopragmatic purposes in theOld Bailey Corpuswhich includes legal materials, especially testimony, from 1720 to 1913. The descriptors can be used to avoid having to repeat a more specific, and possibly offensive and socially or morally inappropriate utterance; they can be used to put the spotlight on the evaluation and impact of the wording rather than the original speech itself; and they can help users mitigate, deflect, or disprove an accusation or guilt. Overall, the article demonstrates that studying the speech of the past must necessarily involve investigating the complex choices made by language users in terms of what to represent, what means to use to represent the speech, and how they evaluate the speech (and speaker).

Practically impossible: the development of an English approximator

ABSTRACT Considerable attention has been paid in the literature to –ly adverbs, from an array of different perspectives, both synchronic and diachronic (e.g. Lorenz 2002; Paradis 2003; Paradis & Bergmark 2003; Tao 2007; Aijmer 2011; Defour 2012; Núñez-Pertejo 2013; Núñez-Pertejo & Palacios-Martínez 2014; Vandenbergen & Taverniers 2014). However, to date the adverb practically has not been the object of a great deal of discussion. Here we will show how this adverb has followed a line of development similar to that of other –ly adverbs, and hence emerges as a manner adverb with the meaning ‘in a practical manner’, ‘in practice’ (frequently opposed to ‘theoretically’ or ‘speculatively’), before evolving into a degree modifier of the approximating type with the meaning ‘almost’, ‘in effect’, ‘nearly’. This paper seeks to contribute to the history of practically by examining its process of subjectification (cf. Traugott 1995; Swan 1997), using a corpus–based methodology. To this end, the Corpus of Late Modern English Texts, version 3.0 (De Smet, Diller & Tyrkkö 2013) has been used, supplemented with additional evidence from the Old Bailey Corpus, version 2.0 (Huber, Nissel & Puga 2016a; 2016b).

Phrasal verb vs. Simplex pairs in legal-lay discourse: the Late Modern English period in focus

Abstract The present paper attempts to describe the divergences between nearly synonymous phrasal verb/simplex pairs from court trials dating back to the Late Modern English period (LModE). The intention was to evaluate the effects that each verb form might exert in discourse, interpreting the lexical choice as functionally linked to the contents of the legal-lay discourse, that is the discourse between lay people and professionals in the courtroom (Heffer 2005: xv). Research to date has highlighted how the choice of one form or another needs to be explained in terms of register and degree of expressiveness (Bolinger 1971: 172; McArthur 1989: 40; Hiltunen 1999: 161; Claridge 2000: 221). However, no studies have yet evaluated the difference between phrasal verbs and simplexes from a phraseological perspective, or reflected on how their use is functionally linked to the communicative needs in courtroom settings. The study was conducted on the Late Modern English-Old Bailey Corpus (LModE-OBC), a self-compiled corpus that covers the century 1750–1850 and that includes a selection of trials drawn from The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court.

Prepositional verb/simplex alternation in the Late Modern English period: evidence from the Proceedings of the Old Bailey

ABSTRACT The present study aims to describe the prepositional verb/simplex alternation in the Late Modern English period (LModE) and, specifically, in the period 1750-1850. The intention is to examine the semantic prosody exhibited by verbs that bear a synonymous relationship interpreting the results by accounting for the contents of courtroom discourse. Many studies have examined the prepositional verb/simplex alternation and their occurrence explained by considering various factors such as the degree of formality of the texts and stylistic choice. Diachronically, instead, during the Early Modern English period, the relation between prepositional verbs and their simplex counterparts has been linked to the need for emphasis on specific aspects of narration or associated with the different degrees of expressiveness. Yet in no case, has prepositional verb/simplex alternation been examined by accounting for the semantic prosody and their occurrence linked to the speaker’s evaluation of narrated events, nor have other periods been taken into account. The present study is a corpus-based investigation conducted on the Late Modern English - Old Bailey Corpus (LModE-OBC), a corpus covering the period 1750-1850, which has been compiled by selecting texts from the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court.

ALittleSomething Goes a Long Way:Littlein the Old Bailey Corpus

Even though intensifiers have received a good deal of attention over the past few decades, downtoners, comprising diminishers and minimizers, have remained by and large a neglected category (but cf. Brinton, this issue). Among downtoners, the adverb little or a little stands out as the most frequent item. It is multifunctional and serves as a diminishing and minimizing intensifier and also in non-degree uses as a quantifier, frequentative, and durative. Therefore, the present paper is devoted to the structural and functional profile of ( a) little in Late Modern English speech-related data. The data source is the socio-pragmatically annotated Old Bailey Corpus (OBC, version 2.0), which allows, among other things, the investigation of the usage of the item among different speaker groups. Our research charts the semantic and formal uses of adverbial little. Downtoner uses outnumber non-degree uses in the data, and diminishing uses are more common than minimizing uses. The formal realization is predominantly a little, with very rare determinerless or modified instances, such as very little. Little modifies a wide range of “targets,” but most frequently adjectives and prepositional phrases, focusing on human states and circumstantial detail. With regard to variation and change, adverbial little declines in use over the 200 years and is used more commonly by speakers from the lower social ranks and by the lay, non-professional participants in the courtroom.

‘We kissed one another and parted good friends.’ On the expression of reciprocity in Early Modern English

Reciprocity in contemporary English is normally expressed by means of the compound pronouns each other and one another, both constructions used interchangeably and without any apparent difference in meaning, even though various factors have been proposed to account for the choice between the two alternatives. Among them, style stands out as the most convincing argument postulating the use of each other and one another in informal and formal contexts, register variation, each other being by far the most common form in all contexts while one another becomes relatively common in fiction and academic prose (Biber et al., 1999: 346-347). From a historical viewpoint, each other stems from those Old English constructions in which the quantifier aelc occurs with the alterity word o¯þer in neighbouring positions, while one another is a Late Middle English development of (the) one + (the) (an)other, where the first element is also the grammatical subject and the second the object (Haas, 2010: 63-68). Since then, both reciprocals have competed for more than five centuries for the expression of reciprocity in English and, interestingly enough, the dilemma is still unresolved, contradicting the general assumption that the competition between forms whose meaning is compatible is usually resolved either by the loss of one of them or by the adoption of a different (Kahlas-Tarkka, 2004: 132). The Early Modern English period becomes a crucial period in the history of reciprocals witnessing the transition from the discontinuous forms each the other and one the other to the fossilized constructions each other and one another. In the light of this, the present paper pursues the following objectives: a) to trace the origin, grammaticalization and univerbation of each other and one another within their own paradigm in Early Modern English, and b) to analyse the use and distribution of these reciprocals to determine the date and the circumstances that contributed to the adoption of each other over one another for the expression of reciprocity in the history of English. The source of evidence comes from the Early English Books Online Corpus (for the period 1473-1700) and the Old Bailey Corpus (for the period 1674-1913).

A diachronic analysis of the adjective intensifierwellfrom Early Modern English to Present Day English

AbstractWhile the use ofwellas an intensifier of most adjectives had supposedly died out by Early Modern English (Fettig 1934: 186, Mustanoja 1960: 327, Stenström 2000: 188, Ito and Taglimonte 2003: 278), no studies have empirically examined its frequency diachronically. The present study traces its use from Early Modern English (1560) to Present Day English, (2014) using five speech-related corpora in addition to various dialectal sources and audio/video clips. Results indicate that this use was retained in some dialects of English despite not being attested in theCorpus of English Dialoguesnor theOld Bailey Corpus,which document predominantly the incipient standard variety. A qualitative analysis of its use reveals a potential diachronic shift in its stress pattern and the scale structure of its intensified heads. Moreover, the present study discusses some of the methodological challenges which arise when using historical corpora to investigate linguistic change, drawing particular attention to sample representativeness and data analysis.

Entirely innocent: a historical sociopragmatic analysis of maximizers in theOld Bailey Corpus

Based on an investigation of theOld Bailey Corpus, this article explores the development and usage patterns of maximizers in Late Modern English (LModE). The maximizers to be considered for inclusion in the study are based on the lists provided in Quirket al.(1985) and Huddleston & Pullum (2002). The aims of the study were to (i) document the frequency development of maximizers, (ii) investigate the sociolinguistic embedding of maximizers usage (gender, class) and (iii) analyze the sociopragmatics of maximizers based on the speakers’ roles, such as judge or witness, in the courtroom.Of the eleven maximizer types focused on in the investigation,perfectlyandentirelywere found to dominate in frequency. The whole group was found to rise over the period 1720 to 1913. In terms of gender, social class and speaker roles, there was variation in the use of maximizers across the different speaker groups. Prominently, defendants, but also judges and lawyers, maximized more than witnesses and victims; further, male speakers and higher-ranking speakers used more maximizers. The results were interpreted taking into account the courtroom context and its dialogue dynamics.

Structural and Sociolinguistic Factors Conditioning the Choice of Relativizers in Late Modern English: A Diachronic Study Based on the Old Bailey Corpus

The present study aims at broadening our understanding of the development of relativizer choice (pronouns, that and zero) in Late Modern English restrictive relative clauses. It investigates the effect of the linguistic factor groups ANIMACY OF THE HEAD and ROLE OF THE RELATIVIZER IN THE RELATIVE CLAUSE and combines these with the social factors GENDER and SOCIAL CLASS . The data used in this study come from the Old Bailey Corpus (Huber et al. 2012). As a corpus of trial proceedings, it affords a glimpse into spoken Late Modern English. Because of its size, the time-span covered and the detail of sociolinguistic utterance-level annotation, the Old Bailey Corpus is an ideal database for a fine-tuned, quantitative- variationist study of relativizers in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is commonly assumed that at the beginning of Late Modern English the relativizers that and zero were felt to be rather colloquial, particularly as far as the written mode was concerned. However, even in the very formal setting of trials as represented by the Old Bailey Corpus , that and zero account for as much as 76.1% of all relativizers in the 1720–1789 period. The frequency of that declined considerably during the two centuries investigated here (from 52.7% down to 27.8%) and it developed into a relativizer that predominantly marked non-human antecedents. Zero, on the other hand, increased in frequency (from 24.2% to 38.3%, thus becoming the most common relativizer) but remained a marker that mainly followed non-human heads. During the 18th and 19th centuries, human antecedents became increasingly marked by who , but there was little change with regard to which , marking about one-fifth of non-human heads in all subperiods. As to sociolinguistic factors, the use of the relative pronouns was promoted by male speakers, while female speakers led in the adoption of the zero relativizer.

Aspectual and idiomatic properties of the particle on in Late Modern Spoken English

Abstract The present study focuses on the description of the semantic features of phrasal verbs (PVs) containing the particle on and specifically aims at analysing the historical development of aspectual and idiomatic combinations in Late Modern Spoken English. From a historical perspective, the “figurative usage” (Kennedy, 1920) of PVs is a very interesting feature because it is the product of historical processes resulting in the PVs as they are known in Present Day English (PDE). This study is a corpus-based investigation conducted on the Late Modern English-Old Bailey Corpus (LModE-OBC), a corpus that has been compiled by using texts from the Proceedings of the Old Bailey and annotated with the Visual Interactive Syntax Learning interface (VISL). The findings reveal that there was a general shift from spatial to aspectual meaning and a relative stability in the frequency of PVs in the time span 1750-1850. It can be assumed that PVs “have undergone a lexical development from compositional to noncompositional” (Thim, 2012, p. 12), a process that led PVs from being literal to figurative in meaning (Denison, 1981, p. 108; Claridge, 2000, p. 47) due to the semantic shift of particles from a directional to an aspectual connotation (Brinton and Akimoto, 1999, p. 8).

Phrasal verbs and analogical generalization in Late Modern Spoken English

Abstract This present study focuses on the description of the development of phrasal verbs (PVs) in Late Modern Spoken English and, specifically, aims at analysing texts taken from the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, a valuable source of spoken language from past time periods. From a diachronic perspective, the emergence of new PVs can be considered strictly linked to the process of direct formation and analogical generalization resulting in PVs as they are known in Present Day English (PDE). This study is a corpus-based investigation conducted on the Late Modern English-Old Bailey Corpus (LModE-OBC), a corpus that has been compiled by using texts from the Proceedings of the Old Bailey and annotated with the Visual Interactive Syntax Learning interface (VISL). The analysis reveals that, in the time span 1750-1850, this verbal group underwent a gradual process of change also due to the contribution of direct formation and analogical generalization, a process that started in the Early Modern English (EME) period and that continued to the Late Modern English (LModE) era.

“Ah, pox o’ your Pad-lock”: Interjections in the Old Bailey Corpus 1720–1913

In Early Modern English Dialogs: Spoken Interaction as Writing (2010), Jonathan Culpeper and Merja Kytö discuss the function and distribution of interjections such as Ah, Oh, and “pragmatic noise” such as Tush in Early Modern English, as represented in A Corpus of English Dialogs 1560–1760. Although they recognize trials as major sources of data close to speech, Culpeper and Kytö mention them only briefly in connection with interjections. I explore the use of the interjections Oh, O, Ah, Ay(e), and Ha(h) in the Modern British English Old Bailey Corpus (1720–1913). As might be expected from trial records, the interjections are used with low frequency. Most appear in narratives by defendants and witnesses, but a few also occur in interactions among courtroom participants. After identifying the inventory of interjections used in the Old Bailey Corpus, I analyze their functions, and the extent to which they evidence change between Early Modern English, as described by Culpeper and Kytö, and Modern English as represented in the later parts of The Old Bailey Corpus.

Peasant Welfare in England, 1290‐1348

The Economic History ReviewVolume 51, Issue 2 p. 223-251 Peasant Welfare in England, 1290-1348 Mark Bailey, Mark Bailey Corpus Christi College, CambridgeSearch for more papers by this author Mark Bailey, Mark Bailey Corpus Christi College, CambridgeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 22 January 2003 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0289.00089Citations: 31AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume51, Issue2May 1998Pages 223-251 RelatedInformation