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Language Living on the Margins and Beyond

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Language Living on the Margins and Beyond Language living on the margins and beyond A historical pragmatic study of marginal vocabulary use in eighteenth-century English Roxanne But A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics March 2016 Acknowledgements Thank you Susan for being my supervisor and believing in my project. You are one of the few people who can be super professional (you were hard on me at times) and approachable with a soft spot at the same time. Thank you for giving me that extra push, saving me when I couldn’t see the wood for the trees, and looking after me at times when I needed it the most. Your books – currently sitting comfortable at my bookshelf – are eagerly looking forward to the reunion with their respective owner. Thank you to those in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Executive Board who reviewed my PhD application and offered me a scholarship to do a doctorate. I will never forget that moment when I received your letter. Thank you for offering me this unique and once-in- a-lifetime opportunity that has changed me entirely – both intellectually, and personally. I’m glad that I could embark on this hard, but rewarding journey. Thank you to those members of the academic community within and outside of Sheffield for your intellectual stimulation, conversation and support over the years. Special thanks go to my fellow PhD buddies and office space mates in the School of English. We were all stuck in this ivory tower, not allowed to leave the palace before we completed our challenging task, dreaming of that One Day that would set us free. My time has finally come, and I shall dearly miss those little every-day moments in the office space. Thank you to the Coffee Rev lovelies for teaching me what real friendship is. You are my good bras: hard to find, very comfortable, supportive, and always close to the heart. Thank you for getting the best out of me and for giving me the confidence in being myself. Not many people can pull that off. Thank you to my housemates whom I got to live with over the years. Even though I preferred my little private space, I’m thankful for your presence in the flat, and make me feel less lonely. Thank you for the chitchat, daytrips and the great memories that we created. Special mention goes to the C4 gang - a promise is a promise, you made it into my thesis! Thank you for being the guinea pigs of my slang experiment - I will never forget how to “do a Karima”. You are awesome (and you know it)! Thank you Mum and Dad for your unconditional love, care and support. I know it must have been hard all these years that your little darling was away from home, but look where I am now! You were right (as parents usually do), studying can be a joyful activity! I will never, ever try to stop learning. This thesis is for you. i Abstract This thesis investigates the use of marginal vocabulary in eighteenth-century texts from a historical pragmatic perspective. The kind of marginal vocabulary that I will be specifically looking at is the special terminology associated with thieves, beggars and the low life known as ‘cant’. The aim of this study is to examine whether and how marginal vocabulary is used in eighteenth-century texts, and how this language evolves over the course of the century. Evidence of marginal vocabulary use in the eighteenth century was elicited from two electronic resources, namely the Old Bailey Proceedings Online (1674- 1913) and the Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) and then qualitatively examined through historical discourse analysis. In the Old Bailey Proceedings Online, I searched for the term ‘cant’ and a number of other marginal terms to find evidence of the actual use of this kind of language in these courtroom texts. As for ECCO, I conducted a diagnostic search of a particular marginal term (‘cull’) to trace the extent to which this term and other marginal terms are used beyond the Old Bailey texts in other eighteenth-century genres. One of the key findings is that marginal vocabulary in the Old Bailey texts is associated with the criminal underclass and reproduced from real-life contexts for specific communicative purposes. Evidence of marginal vocabulary in the ECCO texts shows the expansion of these terms into the wider print culture of the eighteenth century. The marginal vocabulary terms have become ‘public’ words because they have moved beyond the highly specific criminal context. Some of these expressions are reproduced, metalinguistically commented upon and appropriated in a wide variety of popular texts, such as prose fiction, drama and life narratives. In the process, the terms may or may not lose their specialised meaning. ii Copyright notice Some of the work covered in Chapter 5 of the thesis has been published elsewhere as a book chapter in Meaning in the History of English. Words and Texts in Contexts (2013) and is therefore subject to copyright. I would like to thank the editors of Benjamins Publishing for granting me permission to reproduce part of the material into the thesis. Book chapter: But, R. (2013), “The role of context in the meaning specification of cant and slang words in eighteenth-century English”, in Meaning in the History of English. Words and Texts in Context, Jucker, Andreas H., Daniela Landert, Annina Seiler and Nicole Studer-Joho (eds). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 129-154. iii Table of contents Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Copyright notice iii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Aims and rationale for the study 1 1.2 Overview of the structure of the thesis 7 2 Literature review 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Studies on marginal vocabulary in the early modern period (1500-1700) 10 2.2.1 Status of marginal vocabulary in the early modern period 11 2.2.2 Popularity and fetishisation of ‘cant’ 15 2.2.3 Functions of ‘cant’ in literary texts 16 2.3 Studies on marginal vocabulary in the present day 17 2.3.1 Social and functional approaches 18 2.3.2 Functions of marginal vocabulary in written texts 21 2.4 Studies on marginal vocabulary in the eighteenth century 23 2.4.1 Canting lexicography 23 2.4.2 Changes in status of marginal vocabulary in the eighteenth century 26 2.4.3 Social significance of ‘flash’ and (im)politeness 27 2.4.4 Research gap 28 2.5 Conclusion 31 3 A historical pragmatic framework 33 3.1 Introduction 33 3.2 Written documents as data 34 3.3 Interpreting language use in context 35 3.3.1 Historical discourse analysis 35 3.3.2 Internal linguistic evidence: Clues from the co-text 36 3.3.3 External linguistic evidence: Clues about production circumstances 38 text, authors and audiences 3.4 Theoretical concepts 39 3.4.1 Concepts related to language use and functions in written texts 39 3.4.2 Concepts related to the status and circulation of language 43 3.4.3 Concepts related to lexical meaning and semantic change 43 3.5 Conclusion 44 4 Marginal vocabulary use in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey between 1700 45 iv and 1800 4.1 Introduction 45 4.2 Historical background of the Proceedings (1674-1913) 46 4.2.1 The texts 46 4.2.2 Electronic resources 47 4.2.3 The linguistic value of the Proceedings 48 4.3 Methodology and methods: Producing the evidence 50 4.3.1 Lexical-based searches in the Old Bailey Proceedings Online 50 4.3.2 Search procedures of metalinguistic marker ‘cant’ 52 4.3.3 Evidence of the use of ‘cant’ in the Proceedings 53 4.3.4 Search procedures of actual marginal terms 55 4.3.5 Evidence of the use of actual marginal vocabulary in the Proceedings 60 4.4 Marginal vocabulary use in the Sessions Papers (SP) 62 4.4.1 Speaker pragmatic device: Marginal vocabulary use in the 65 testimonies 4.4.1.1 Witness (victim) 67 4.4.1.2 Witness (for the prosecution) 69 4.4.1.3 Court officials (lawyers) 73 4.4.1.4 Defendant (prisoner) 76 4.4.2 Authorial pragmatic device: Reproduction of marginal vocabulary 77 by the court recorder in the written record 4.5 Marginal vocabulary use in the Ordinary’s Accounts (OA) 84 4.5.1 Reproduction of marginal vocabulary by Ordinary in the written 86 record 4.5.1.1 ‘Slang Mort Lay’: Romancising the life of Jenny Diver 88 (1705-1741) 4.5.1.2 Negotiating identity 94 4.6 Conclusion 99 5 Marginal vocabulary use in texts selected from the Eighteenth Century 102 Collections Online 5.1 Introduction 102 5.2 About the Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) 103 5.2.1 Linguistic value of ECCO 104 5.3 Methodology and methods: Producing the evidence 105 5.3.1 Rationale for using ‘cull’ to search for marginal vocabulary 106 5.3.2 Search procedures keyword search ‘cull’ 109 5.4 Types/contexts (co-texts and genres) of marginal vocabulary use in 111 ECCO 5.4.1 Verse 113 5.4.2 Prose 114 v 5.5. Marginal vocabulary use in ECCO texts 116 5.5.1 Reproduction of marginal vocabulary 116 5.5.2 Metalinguistic awareness, discussion and evaluation 119 5.5.3 Characterisation and mixture of registers: Marginal vocabulary as a 122 source of appropriation 5.5.4 Word meaning: The contingent polysemous nature of ‘cull’ 135 5.6 Conclusion 138 6 Conclusion 142 6.1 Key findings 142 6.2 Historical pragmatics: Some reflections on methodology and methods 146 6.2.1 Historical discourse analysis 146 6.2.2 Use of electronic databases and search procedures 149 6.3 Future research 152 Bibliography 155 Appendices 169 vi Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1.
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