Servant or patron? Jacob Tonson and the language of deference and respect  

Oleh:

Fitzmaurice, Susan

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Language Sciences (Full Text) vol. 24 no. 3-4 (2002), page 247-260.
Topik: Early Modern English; English modals; Epistemic and deontic modality; Politeness; Discourse analysis; Pragmatics
Fulltext: 24_03-04_Fitzmaurice.pdf (191.64KB)

Isi artikel

The Kit Cat Club founded in 1700 by Jacob Tonson brought together young men of the newprofessions, including poets, architects and journalists, with some of the most important and influential men of the day. The latter were Whig politicians, many of them of noble birth and considerable fortunes. Jacob Tonson, club secretary and bookseller, advised his writer clients about whom to choose as dedicatees that might take more than a passing interest in their careers beyond the life of the pen. As such, he was a key broker of patronage between the ambitious young Whigs and patrons like Charles Montagu, Lord Halifax. The difference in rank and fortune between the Whig grandees and Tonson might be expected to be reflected in the language of those writers in search of patronage. This essay demonstrates that despite the fact that forms of address very clearly distinguished between the ranks of the patrons and the broker, poets like Addison, Stepney and Congreve nevertheless accorded to Tonson the same linguistic terms of politeness (in their modal language) that they employed to address their patrons. Pragmatic analysis of their modal language reveals their linguistic acknowledgment of the very real position of power occupied by Tonson.

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