Disgusting, obscene and aggravating language: speech descriptors and the sociopragmatic evaluation of speech in theOld Bailey Corpus

Abstract

This article deals with the mechanisms that language users employ in historical periods to represent spoken language in writing. I focus on a set of features known as speech descriptors, which allow users to combine representation and evaluation of the speech (and, possibly, of the speaker), such as most disgusting in ‘he used most disgusting language’. The study shows that such speech descriptors in combination with the lemma language are used for a number of sociopragmatic purposes in the Old Bailey Corpus which includes legal materials, especially testimony, from 1720 to 1913. The descriptors can be used to avoid having to repeat a more specific, and possibly offensive and socially or morally inappropriate utterance; they can be used to put the spotlight on the evaluation and impact of the wording rather than the original speech itself; and they can help users mitigate, deflect, or disprove an accusation or guilt. Overall, the article demonstrates that studying the speech of the past must necessarily involve investigating the complex choices made by language users in terms of what to represent, what means to use to represent the speech, and how they evaluate the speech (and speaker).

Speech reflections in Late Modern English pauper letters from Dorset

“…However, dialectal evidence in these valuable sources is mediated through or provided by a usually well-educated writer (see also Fairman 2007c: 192; Ruano-García 2023) and does not document spontaneous, unmonitored speech. Similarly, court records as documented in the Old Bailey Corpus can also contain an element of editorial intervention (Dossena 2010: 14; Grund 2023).…”