Query Details

Query Subject:	Performatives in Medieval Czech
Author:	stephen dickey
Submitter Email:	click here to access email

Linguistic LingField(s):	Historical Linguistics

Query:	Dear colleagues, I am wondering if anyone has any knowledge of what I can only describe as a kind of repeated epistolary performative in European Medieval texts, in particular Latin or Old High/Middle High German. The examples I have come across occur in Czech letters from the fifteenth century, of which the following are representative examples: vyznávam tiemto listem… že sem prodala a mocí tohoto listu prodávám lan dědiny v Vysoce Lhotě I make known by this letter, that I have SOLD and by virtue of this letter SELL a piece of land in Vysoka Lhota. (early 15th cent.) já Oldřich svrchupsaný slíbil jsem i slibuji svú dobrú a čistú vierú… I Oldřich the aforementioned have PROMISED and PROMISE my good and pure faith… (early 15th cent.) What I'm trying to determine is whether this construction, consisting of a perfective preterit followed by the corresponding imperfective present-tense performative is a home-grown Czech construction, or whether it was imported on the basis of some western European model. Any comments are appreciated. Stephen M. Dickey
LL Issue:	23.471
Date posted:	31-Jan-2012
Back

Sums main page

New from Cambridge University Press!