Early Modern English Dialogues : Spoken Interaction as Writing

Language is largely comprised of face-to-face spoken interaction; however, the method, description and theory of traditional historical accounts of English have been largely based on scholarly and literary writings.

Using the Corpus of English Dialogues 1560-1760, in this book Culpeper and Kytoe offer a unique account of the linguistic features in several speech-related written genres, comprising trial proceedings, witness depositions, plays, fiction and didactic works.

The volume is the first to provide innovative analyses of several neglected written genres, demonstrating how they might be researched, and highlighting the theories which are needed to underpin this research.

Through this, the authors are able to create a fascinating insight into what spoken interaction in Early Modern English might have been like, providing an alternative perspective to that often presented in traditional historical accounts of English.