Hübler Axel. The Nonverbal Shift in Early Modern English Conversation

John Benjamins, 2007. — x, 278 pp. (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series). — ISBN: 978-90-272-5397-2.This is the first historical investigation on the nonverbal component of conversation. In the courtly society of 16th and 17th century England, it is argued that a drift appeared toward an increased use of prosodic means of expression at the expense of gestural means. Direct evidence is provided by courtesy books and personal documents of the time, indirect evidence by developments in the English lexicon. The rationale of the argument is cognitively grounded; given the integral role of gestures in thinking-for-speaking, it rests on an isomorphism between gestural and prosodic behavior that is established semiotically and elaborated by insights from neurocognitive frequency theory and task dynamics. The proposal is rounded off by an illustration from present-day conversational data and the proof of its adaptability to current theories of language change. The cross-disciplinary approach addresses all those interested in (historical) pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, cultural semantics, semiotics, or language change.Subjecting the body to control
Subject to control: Speech-accompanying gestures and other kinesic behavior
Prescriptive evidence from courtesy literature
Are gestures dispensable?
McNeill’s growth point theory
Negative evidence
The touchstone of real life
Descriptive evidence from historical personal documents
Extrapolating
Words for gestures?
Gestural idioms
Redundant phrasal verbs
Pure spatial verbs
Body-part verbs
Embodied verbs of intellectual action 104
Critical review
Turning to the vocal mode
Among segmentals
The best pick of prosody
Prosodic configurations and their iconicity with kinesic gestures
Establishing further homologies between prosody and kinesics
Conclusions
Pieces of historical evidence for a prosodic turn
Prescriptive evidence from the courtesy literature
Descriptive evidence from personal documents
Repercussions of the prosodic turn in the lexicon
Awareness and lexicalization
Lexemes of prosody
The borderline case of alternants
Critical review
Prince and petit bourgeois: A virtual picture
The database
Nonverbal analyses
Comparison and discussion
Recast into a conjectural history of modal change
Main ingredients
The process of change