<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of social and context factors on the diffusion of a linguistic change from above, namely the deployment of the spelling innovation &lt;th> in fifteenth-century English, and especially in some letters from the well-known Paston collection of correspondence. We particularly focus on the socio-stylistic route of this change from above, observing the sociolinguistic behaviour of some letter writers (members of the Paston family) in connection with the social-professional status of their recipients, the interpersonal relationship with them, as well as the contexts and styles of the letters. In this way, different dimensions of this change from above in progress in fifteenth-century English can be reconstructed.</p></abstract>

The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of social and context factors on the diffusion of a linguistic change from above, namely the deployment of the spelling innovation <th> in fifteenth-century English, and especially in some letters from the well-known Paston collection of correspondence. We particularly focus on the socio-stylistic route of this change from above, observing the sociolinguistic behaviour of some letter writers (members of the Paston family) in connection with the social-professional status of their recipients, the interpersonal relationship with them, as well as the contexts and styles of the letters. In this way, different dimensions of this change from above in progress in fifteenth-century English can be reconstructed.

Tracing Patterns of Intra-Speaker Variation in Early English Correspondence: A Change from Above in the <italic>Paston Letters</italic>

Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Facultad de Letras, Campus de La Merced

Studia Anglica Posnaniensia

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tracing Patterns of Intra-Speaker Variation in Early English Correspondence: A Change from Above in the 

The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of social and context factors on the diffusion of a linguistic change from above, namely the deployment of the spelling innovation  in fifteenth-century English, and especially in some letters from the well-known Paston collection of correspondence. We particularly focus on the socio-stylistic route of this change from above, observing the sociolinguistic behaviour of some letter writers (members of the Paston family) in connection with the social-professional status of their recipients, the interpersonal relationship with them, as well as the contexts and styles of the letters. In this way, different dimensions of this change from above in progress in fifteenth-century English can be reconstructed.

The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of social and context factors on the diffusion of a linguistic change from above, namely the deployment of the...

Tracing Patterns of Intra-Speaker Variation in Early English Correspondence: A Change from Above in the Paston Letters

Publié en ligne: 30 juil. 2020

Pages: 287 - 314

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/stap-2019-0014

Mots clés
Historical sociolinguistics, sociolinguistic styles, change from above, history of English spelling, late Middle English,

© 2019 Juan M. Hernández-Campoy et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tracing Patterns of Intra-Speaker Variation in Early English Correspondence: A Change from Above in the Paston Letters

Publié en ligne: 30 juil. 2020

Pages: 287 - 314

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/stap-2019-0014

Mots clésHistorical sociolinguistics, sociolinguistic styles, change from above, history of English spelling, late Middle English,

© 2019 Juan M. Hernández-Campoy et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
Historical sociolinguistics, sociolinguistic styles, change from above, history of English spelling, late Middle English,