The Contribution of Metadiscourse to the Illocutionary Logic of Winthrop's A Modell of Christian Charitiy. Issue 8 (16th November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vergaro, Carla
• Is Part Of: English studies. Volume 101:Issue 8(2020)
• Page Start: 921
• Page End: 942
• Publication Date: 2020-11-16
• Subjects: A Modell of Christian Charity -- illocutionary logic -- John Winthrop -- intertextual metadiscourse -- intratextual metadiscourse -- Puritan sermon; English philology -- Periodicals; English literature -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Philologie anglaise -- Périodiques; Littérature anglaise -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; 420
• DOI: 10.1080/0013838X.2020.1851075
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-838X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the analysis of metadiscourse in Winthrop's 1630 sermon A Modell of Christian Charity, considered a kind of "Ur-text of American literature". 1 A lot has been written on it from the socio-historical and cultural point of view, much less instead from the linguistic point of view. In this study I analyze the manifestation of metadiscourse in the Modell, i.e. all those elements in a text which do not add new material to the text proposition but which are used to refer to already existing text-propositional elements. The approach I follow is theoretically speech-act based, and methodologically qualitative. It is aimed at showing how metadiscursive devices contribute to the illocutionary logic of the sermon and, in so doing, create the logical foundations for the collective action that Winthrop asked the participants in the Great Migration to accomplish in the New World.