Hilborn, D. (1994) The pragmatics of liturgical discourse: with special reference to English Reformed worship and the preformative language doxology of Jean Ladrière. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. 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Please see our full end user licence at: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/end_user_agreement.pdf A note on versions: The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE PRAGMATICS of LITURGICAL DISCOURSE With Special Reference to English Refonned Worship and the Performative Language Doxology of Jean Ladriere By Revd. David Hilborn, BA MA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, October 1994 VOLUME I Part I & Part II Chapters 5-6 BEST COpy AVAILABLE Variable print quality CONTENTS VOLUME I Abstract Preface Note on referencing PART I: TIlE ANATOMY OF LITURGICAL PRAGMATICS: METHOD, THEORY AND FIELDWORK 1 Towards a Pragmatics of Liturgy 1 1.1 Pragmatics and liturgy: grounds for association 1 1.2 Pragmatics and liturgy in the realm of semiotics 4 1.3 An integrated schema for liturgical pragmatics 7 2 Pragmatics. Language and Discourse: Methodological 11 Foundations for a New Liturgic 2.1 Definitional issues 11 2.2 Root concepts in linguistic pragmatics: 13 their relation to liturgy 2.2.1 Langue and parole 13 2.2.2 Meaning as use: language games and forms of life 15 2.2.3 Competence, performance and communicative competence 17 2.2.4 Further definitive concepts: Sentence v utterance; type v token; 22 sense v force 2.2.5 Context 24 2.3 Contemporary linguistic pragmatics: its scope and 28 application to liturgy 2.4 Pragmatics, religious language and liturgy: 43 precedents and points for development 2.4.1 General theological and philosophical studies 45 of religious language 2.4.2 Theological and philosophical applications of 52 pragmatics to religious language 2.4.3 General theological studies of liturgical language 60 2.4.4 Theological and philosophical applications of 68 pragmatics to the language of liturgy 2.4.5 Religious and liturgical language study 77 in linguistics 2.5 Confirming key needs: the refinement, synthesis 85 and extension of liturgical-pragmatic method 3 Pragmatics and Doxology: Theories of Language-Use 87 and Theologies of Worship 3.1 Doxology and pragmatic theory 87 3.2 Language-use as an issue in contemporary 91 liturgical theology 3.3 Jean Ladriere and the 'performativity' 98 of liturgical language 3.4 Implications for a Reformed liturgical pragmatics 111 4 Pragmatics and the data of liturgical performance: 132 an empirical approach to the sacral speech-event 4.1 The place and use of corpus data in pragmatics 132 4.2 The use of corpora in liturgical language study: 138 precedents and principles 4.3 Original data used in this study 147 4.3.1 Printed material: the United Reformed Church 150 Service Book (1989) 4.3.2 Field data: Advent Sunday Survey 152 4.3.2.1 Background 152 4.3.2.2 Determining the data field 154 4.3.2.3 Analytical perspective 155 4.3.2.4 Selection of participant congregations 157 4.3.2.5 Selection of services for analysis 166 4.3.2.6 Data collection procedures 168 4.3.2.6.1 Audio recording 170 4.3.2.6.2 Informant testing: questionnaire 172 4.3.2.6.3 Ethnosemantic analysis: service order chart 172 4.3.3 Transcription of field data 175 4.3.3.1 General principles 175 4.3.3.2 The 'turn' as a basic transcription unit: 177 applications to liturgical discourse 4.3.3.3 'Significant pausing' as a turn criterion: 182 distinctive patterns in Iiturgical discourse 4.3.3.4 Stress. volume. tone and pitch 193 4.3.3.5 Orthography 195 4.3.3.6 Non-transcribed material: the omission of 196 sermons. hymn texts and readings from analysis 4.3.3.7 Incorporating ethnosemantic data into 201 transcripts: the segmentation of service discourse 4.3.3.8 Extralinguistic features: the representation of 203 context 4.4 From 'anatomy' to 'operation' 205 PART ll: PRAGMATICS IN LITURGIOLOGICAL PRACTICE: THE FUNCfIONS OF REFORMED SERVICE DISCOURSE 5 The Word Performed: Liturgy and Speech Act Theory 206 5.1 Background 206 5.2 Liturgy and 'the isolation of the performative' 207 5.3 Felicity conditions and rules of use 210 in church worship 5.4 From performative/constative to 233 locution/illocution/perlocution 5.4.1 Locutions v illocutions in worship 237 5.4.2 The problem of 'explicit performatives' 249 in liturgy 5.4.3 Illocutions and perlocutions in worship 259 5.5 Illocutionary acts, illocutionary forces 265 and 'directions of fit' in liturgy 5.6 Key complications in a speech act analysis 306 of liturgy 5.6.1 Indirectness 306 5.6.2 Pragmatic ambivalence 309 5.6.2.1 Assertive Directives 311 5.6.2.2 Assertive-Commissive Directives 312 5.6.2.3 Assertive Expressives 312 5.6.2.4 Assertive-Expressive Commissives 314 5.6.2.5 Assertive Declarations 315 5.6.2.6 Assertive-Expressive Declarational Directives 316 5.6.3 'Felicity' and 'truth' in sacral discourse 318 6 The Word Communicated: Liturgy. Implicature 334 and Relevance 6.1 From speech acts to interaction 334 6.2 Implicature and liturgy 336 6.3 Liturgy in the light of relevance theory 372 VOLUME2 7 The Word Elaborated: Liturgy as Discourse 401 and Dialogue 7.1 Beyond the single speech act: liturgical 401 pragmatics as necessarily discoursal and dialogical 7.2 'Macro speech act' models and the study 408 of liturgy 7.2.1 Consequent liturgical speech acts: 417 illocutions or perlocutions? 7.2.2 Liturgy as 'conversation'?: 427 some basic distinctions 7.3 Developing a model for extended liturgical 431 speech action: from bi-lateral exchanges to multilateral, contextualised speech-events 7.4 Monological v dialogical paradigms in Reformed 453 worship: the diachronic perspective 7.4.1 The reinforcement of Calvinistic monologism 456 in English Puritan worship 7.4.2 Monologues v dialogues from 1662 to the present 466 7.5 Similarities and differences in the pragmatic 476 functions of mono logical and dialogical worship discourse 7.5.1 The analogy with drama 478 7.5.2 Liturgical discourse which might equally be 482 mono logical or dialogical 7.5.3 Liturgical discourse which is distinctively 486 mono logical or dialogical 7.5.3.1 Agreement and the dialogical status of 'Amens' 492 7.5.3.2 Further intrinsically dialogical sequences 496 in liturgy 7.5.3.2.1 Question-answer 497 7.5.3.2.2 (]reeting-greeting 505 7.5.3.2.3 Offer-acceptance 509 7.5.4 The characteristic indirectness and ambivalence 514 of liturgical adjacency pairs 7.5.5 Radical asyndeton and frequent topic-shifting 516 as generic indicators of liturgy 7.6 The pragmatic drawbacks of Reformed 523 'didactic monologism' 8 The Woni Ritualized: Liturgy as Activity Type 525 8.1 Preliminary remarks 525 8.2 Sociolinguistic paradigms for liturgical 526 pragmatics: activity types, prepatterning and the ethnography of speaking 8.2.l. Degrees of liturgical prepatterning: a hypothesis 528 8.2.l.1 Routine, convention and ritual in liturgy 532 8.3 Situational prepatterning of the church service 541 8.3.1 Sacral settings 541 8.3.2 Sacral scenes 546 8.4 Participational prepatterning: speech and 550 utterance event roles in liturgy 8.5 Teleological prepatteming: the purposed 564 ends of liturgy 8.6 Act-sequential prepaneming in worship 567 8.6.1 The fixity of message form and message content 567 in liturgy 8.6.2 Forms of speech: liturgical codes and registers 584 8.7 Prepatterned norms of sacral interaction 588 and interpretation 8.8 Generic prepatteming in the church service 592 *** 9 Conclusions 606 9.1 Overall conceptions 606 9.2 Methodological points 608 9.3 Theoretical points 617 9.4 Empirical points 621 9.5 The way ahead: Liturgical pragmatics 623 9.6 The way ahead: United Reformed Church worship 625 Appendices: Advent Sunday Survey Data 1. Churches participating in Advent Sunday Survey 628 2. Questionnaire format 629 3. Transcription Conventions 637 4. Field data: summarised questionnaire information, 639 transcripts and service order charts 4.1 Heme Hill United Reformed/Methodist Church, 640 London 4.2 Emmanuel United Reformed Church, West 656 Wickham, Kent 4.3 Thatcham United Reformed Church, Berkshire 680 4.4 Derriford United Reformed Church, Devon 697 4.5 Warsash United Reformed Church, Hampshire 727 4.6 Wheatley United Reformed Church, Oxfordshire 746 4.7 Weoley Castle Community Church (United 768 Reformed), Birmingham 4.8 Bulwell United Reformed Church, Nottingham 794 4.9 Blackford Bridge United Reformed Church, 814 Bury (Greater Manchester) 4.10 St.