Actos de habla directivos y cortesía ritualizada en español medieval

Abstract

Directive speech acts and ritualized politeness in medieval Spanish The goal of this paper is to examine the relationship between politeness and directive speech acts in medieval Spanish. The analysis, which is eminently descriptive, is based on fictional literature from the13th and 14th centuries, although there are also examples taken from historical corpora. The focus first falls on the pragmatic space of directive speech acts with regards to their formal properties, contextual cues and interpersonal features. The pragmatic modifiers that either soften or strengthen the illocutionary force or affect in some way the relationship between speaker and hearer are then taken into account. Finally, it is contended that politeness in medieval Spanish has a ritual component that helps maintain the social order and construe interpersonal relationships.