Dear Mr. President : Language Change in Nineteenth Century U.S. Presidential Correspondence

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Dear Mr. President : Jezične promjene u pismima američkim predsjednicima u devetnaestom stoljeću
• Author: Neven Kliček
• Mentor: Alexander Douglas Hoyt (mentor)
• Committee member: Anđel Starčević (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Marina Grubišić (član povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Alexander Douglas Hoyt (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2022-04-11, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

This Master’s is based upon a historical-sociolinguistic analysis of the language in letters sent to U.S. presidents in the nineteenth century. The corpus consists of forty-two letters, and it was transcribed and assembled manually by the researcher. Four variables were chosen as the main foci of the analysis- two pragmatic issues and two orthographic. These are addresses, closings, abbreviations, and “long-s”. The analysis was done through the lens of such sociolinguistic concepts as Politeness Theory and Audience Design Theory. The analysis of addresses and closings showed that the writers at the time were quite concerned with coming across as negatively polite, which can be observed in the heavy use of honorifics and conventionalized phrases containing such words as respect, regard, etc., with the variability of closings also indicating sincerity. The heavy use of abbreviations implies that writers wanted to show a lack of vanity, since they were used in letters where the content was more important than appearance; and the analysis of the use of “long-s” yielded the conclusion that the writing behaviour in an individual is slow to change, especially in conventionalized phrases.

Abstract (croatian)

Ovaj diplomski rad temelji se na povijesno-sociolingvističkoj analizi jezika u pismima poslanima američkim predsjednicima u devetnaestom stoljeću. Korpus pisama je prikupljena i prepisana od strane istraživača i sačinjena je od četrdeset i dva pisma. Četiri varijable su uzete kao predmet istraživanja, od kojih su dvije vezane za pragmatiku, a dvije za ortografiju. Te varijable su: obraćanja, zatvaranja pisama, kratice i „dugo-s“. Analiza je provedena uzimajući u obzir sociolingvističke koncepte kao što su Politeness Theory i Audience Design Theory. Analiza obraćanja i zatvaranja pisama je pokazala da su se pisci tog doba trudili ostaviti dojam „negativne“ pristojnosti, što se može vidjeti u obilnom korištenju počasnih izraza i konvencionalnih izraza kao što su poštovanje, obzir, itd.. Uz to, varijabilnost fraza u zatvaranju također ukazuju na želju za pokazivanjem iskrenosti. Obilno korištenje skraćenica ukazuje na to da su pisci htjeli ostaviti dojam da nisu tašti jer su se one koristile kada je sadržaj bio važniji od izgleda pisma. Na kraju, analiza „dugog-s“ je pokazala da se način pisanja pisama u pojedincu teško mijenja, a to se osobito može vidjeti u konvencionalnim frazama.

• Keywords: historical sociolinguistics; corpus; letters; convention
• Keywords (croatian): povijesna sociolingvistika; korpus; pisma; konvencija
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:023584
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (single major); specializations in: TEFL, Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2022-04-22 12:09:34