2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Sociolinguistic Stylistic Study on 16th and 17th Century German City Language-as spoken in Nuremberg
| Project/Area Number |
16520270
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | Fukuoka University |
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Principal Investigator |
MORISAWA Mariko Fukuoka University, Faculty of Humanities, Associate Professor, 人文学部, 助教授 (70279248)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TAKADA Hiroyuki Gakushuin University, Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (80127331)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2005
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| Keywords | German Language History / City Language / Historical Sociolinguistics / Stylistics / Relative Pronouns and Relative Adverbs / Politeness |
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| Research Abstract |
For the purpose of analyzing stylistic differences between various sorts of texts, Morisawa carried out a sampling research with respect to the usage of relative pronouns and relative adverbs. Main materials were private texts (letters etc.) and official texts (the art theory book"four books about the proportions of the human body"etc.) by the artist Albrecht Durer, who was a wellknown citizen of 16^<th> century Nuremberg. As a result : particularly the dedication of"four books about the proportions of the human body"showed a remarkable stylistic difference compared to his other official texts and his private texts. As for this dedication, there is also an opinion that Durer probably didn't write it himself. Here, from a stylistic angle, Morisawa attempted to support this opinion and further to interpret awareness of the stylistic norms in official texts, which a writer during the late renaissance had to observe.
Takada, who focuses 17^<th> century stylistics in official texts, used as a source"Der Teutsche Secretarius"that Georg Philipp Harsdorffer published in the year 1656 in Nuremberg. In his book he describes in detail the way of composing letters and provides the reader with well selected examples. He was able to analyze, how the relationship between writers and receivers should be reflected in the style of letters, within the opinions the ruling class of mid 17^<th>century Nuremberg. For example, in addressing the receiver, nominalized adjectives are ritualized. Certain adverbs, phrases, syntactic combinations also serve to increase a polite distance. Furthermore, the different social standing of writer and receiver of the letters were not only expressed by using different phrases in the beginning and ending of letters, but also by the usage of upper-case and lower-case letters.
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