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

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.

Contextualising Third-Wave Historical Sociolinguistics

“…For example, social and stylistic patterns of variation have been found in the epistolary interaction of individuals, as well as self-monitoring based patterns of style-shifting, implying, presumably, that style-shifting happens along a continuum of informality versus formality, either because writers self-monitor their stylistic choices by producing more careful linguistic patterns, or in response to audience pressures (see Alexandropoulos, 2015;Auer, 2015;García-Vidal, 2023;Havinga, 2021;Hernández-Campoy, 2023;Hernández-Campoy & García-Vidal, 2018a,2018bHernández-Campoy et al, 2019;Schiegg, 2018Schiegg, , 2022Tieken-Boon van Ostade, 2005;Voeste, 2018;amongst others). Accounts of communities of practice have also been found in historical data.…”