TY - JOUR

T1 - Constructing witches and spells: speech acts and activity types in early modern England.

AU - Culpeper, Jonathan

AU - Semino, Elena

PY - 2000

Y1 - 2000

N2 - In this paper, we highlight the centrality of verbs relating to verbal activities in witchcraft narratives in the Early Modern English period, and focus on speech act verbs used to refer to witches' curses. In the first part, we refer to various classifications of speech act verbs and to Searle's felicity conditions for speech acts, in order to describe the different meanings of verbs such as to curse, and to show how their central meaning has shifted over time. In the second part, we show how the speech act verbs form a structured set, which — in appropriate circumstances — could be used as an interpretative frame to create witchcraft events out of relatively trivial arguments within village communities. Here, we refer to Levinson's notion of activity types as a possible explanatory framework.

AB - In this paper, we highlight the centrality of verbs relating to verbal activities in witchcraft narratives in the Early Modern English period, and focus on speech act verbs used to refer to witches' curses. In the first part, we refer to various classifications of speech act verbs and to Searle's felicity conditions for speech acts, in order to describe the different meanings of verbs such as to curse, and to show how their central meaning has shifted over time. In the second part, we show how the speech act verbs form a structured set, which — in appropriate circumstances — could be used as an interpretative frame to create witchcraft events out of relatively trivial arguments within village communities. Here, we refer to Levinson's notion of activity types as a possible explanatory framework.

U2 - 10.1075/jhp.1.1.08cul

DO - 10.1075/jhp.1.1.08cul

M3 - Journal article

VL - 1

SP - 97

EP - 116

JO - Journal of Historical Pragmatics

JF - Journal of Historical Pragmatics

SN - 1566-5852

IS - 1

ER -