hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2018-02-03

■ #3204. 歴史社会言語学と歴史語用論の合流 [sociolinguistics][history_of_linguistics][historical_pragmatics][history_of_linguistics][hisopra]

　「#3198. 語用論の2潮流としての Anglo-American 対 European Continental」 ([2018-01-28-1])，「#3203. 文献学と歴史語用論は何が異なるか？」 ([2018-02-02-1]) の記事で，言語学史的な観点から，近年発展の著しい歴史語用論 (historical_pragmatics) について考えた．関連の深い学問分野として歴史社会言語学 (historical sociolinguistics) も同様に成長してきており，扱う問題の種類によっては，事実上，2つの分野は合流しているといってよい．名前はその分長くなるが，歴史社会語用論 (historical sociopragmatics) という分野が育ってきているということだ．略して "HiSoPra" ということで，1年ほど前に日本でもこの名前の研究会が開かれた（「#2883. HiSoPra* に参加して (1)」 ([2017-03-19-1])，「#2884. HiSoPra* に参加して (2)」 ([2017-03-20-1]) を参照）．
　この20--30年ほどの間の「歴史社会言語学＋歴史語用論＝歴史社会語用論」という学問領域の進展について，Taavitsainen (1469) が鮮やかに記述している1節があるので，引用しよう．

Historical sociolinguistics was launched more than a decade earlier than historical pragmatics . . . . The focus is on the extent to which change in language is conditioned by the social factors identified as characterizing the dataset. In recent years, historical pragmatics and historical sociolinguistics have converged. If for example a recent definition of pragmatics by Mey . . . is taken as the point of departure, "[p]ragmatics studies the use of language in human communication as determined by the conditions of society", the difference between historical sociolinguistics and pragmatics disappears altogether, and pragmatics is always "socio-" in the European broad view of pragmatics. This reflects the European tradition; in the Anglo-American the difference is still valid. The convergence is also acknowledged by the other side as "sociolinguistics has also been enriched by developments in discourse analysis, pragmatics and ethnography" . . . . The overlap is clear and some subfields of pragmatics, such as politeness and power, are also counted as subfields of sociolinguistics. A recent trend is to deal with politeness (and impoliteness) through speech acts in the history of English . . ., but it is equally possible to take a more sociolinguistic view . . . . The two disciplines have very similar topics, and titles of talks in conference programs are often very close. Further evidence of the tendency to converge is the emerging new field of historical sociopragmatics, which deals with interaction between specific aspects of social context and particular historical language use that leads to pragmatic meanings in understanding the rich dynamics of particular situations, often combining both macro- and microlevel analysis.

　英語学の文脈でいえば，歴史語用論は1980年代にその兆しを見せつつ，Jucker 編の　Historical Pragmatics (1995) で本格的に旗揚げされたといってよい．それから20年余の間に，著しく活発な分野へと成長してきた．結果的には，独立して発生してきた歴史社会言語学との二人三脚が成立し，融合分野としての歴史社会語用論が注目を浴びつつある．そんな状況に，いま私たちはいる．

　・ Taavitsainen, Irma. "New Perspectives, Theories and Methods: Historical Pragmatics." Chapter 93 of English Historical Linguistics: An International Handbook. 2 vols. Ed. Alexander Bergs and Laurel J. Brinton. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2012. 1457--74.
　・ Jucker, Andreas H., ed. Historical Pragmatics: Pragmatic Developments in the History of English. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1995.

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