As modern medievalists have repeatedly established, harmful speech conduct ('sins of the tongue') aroused considerable interest among medieval authors. Lying, boasting, flattering, railing, backbiting, grumbling, false swearing, and garrulous and incendiary speech were but a few of the speech acts that provoked moral condemnation all over Western Europe from the thirteenth century onward. This study examines medieval notions of harmful speech conduct as reflected in Middle Dutch ecclesiastical, secular-ethical, and legal textual sources. According to these texts, the tongue was able to 'break bones' and inflict considerable damage on the speaker, on listeners, and on other relevant participants in speech situations. The book utilises two novel approaches. First, the subject is systematically explored in terms of three different types of behaviour in order to discover an overarching discourse: harmful speech as a sin, as moral misbehaviour, and as a crime. Second, ideas from modern language theory are used to analyse the textual sources. By adopting these two approaches, the book asserts that an overarching discourse of harmful speech can be found in the Middle Dutch ecclesiastical, secular-ethical, and legal domains, a discourse coined in this study as 'the discourse of the untamed tongue'.
Author(s): Martine Veldhuizen
Series: Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 36
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 224
City: Turnhout
Preface xi
Notation Method xiii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 The Harmful Power of the Tongue 1
1.2 Corpus 4
1.3 Status of the Research 6
1.3.1 Medieval Notions on Harmful Speech Behaviour 6
1.3.2 Inventory of Methods 10
1.4 The Concept 'Discourse' 12
1.5 Limitations of the Study and Methodological Observations 13
1.6 Relevance 16
1.7 Research Question and Plan 17
2. Harmful Speech Behaviour in Three Domains – Background and Method 19
2.1 Introduction 19
2.2 Periodisation 20
2.3 The Three Domains 22
2.3.1 The Ecclesiastical Domain 22
2.3.2 The Secular-Ethical Domain 25
2.3.3 The Judicial Domain 28
2.4 Method 32
2.4.1 Language Theory Instruments 33
2.4.2 Framing Notions on Destructive Speech Behaviour 42
2.4.3 Analysis Model for Each Text 43
3. Sinful Words – Notions on Harmful Speech in the Ecclesiastical Domain 45
3.1 Introduction 45
3.2 Corpus 46
3.3 The Harmful Effects of Sins of the Tongue 51
3.3.1 Describing the Harmful Effects 51
3.3.2 The Malicious Source of Sins of the Tongue 57
3.3.3 Controlling the Tongue 61
3.4 Grace-Threatening and Face-Threatening Acts 63
3.4.1 Grace-Threatening and Face-Threatening for the Speaker 63
3.4.2 Grace-Threatening and Face-Threatening for the Subject 69
3.5 Variables in the Speech Situation 73
3.5.1 Making Public 73
3.5.2 Listeners 75
3.5.3 Hierarchical Relation 77
3.6 Conclusion 81
4. Improper Words – Notions of Harmful Speech in the Secular-Ethical Domain 85
4.1 Introduction 85
4.2 Corpus 86
4.3 Improper Words I: Speaking Foolishly 94
4.3.1 Speaking Foolishly as Harmful Speech Behaviour 94
4.3.2 Speaking Foolishly as a Grace-Threatening or Face-Threatening Act 104
4.3.3 Variables in the Speech Situation: Men and Women 106
4.3.4 Bragging and Bickering as Foolish Speech Behaviour 108
4.4 Improper Words II: Flattery and Libel 112
4.4.1 Flattery and Slander as Harmful Speech Behaviour 112
4.4.2 Flattery and Slander as Grace-Threatening and Face-Threatening Acts 118
4.4.3 Variables in the Speech Situation 123
4.5 Conclusion 128
5. Criminal Words – A Dispute between a Landlord and a Tenant (1480) 133
5.1 Introduction 133
5.2 Corpus 135
5.3 Background Information on the 'Plurade' Case 137
5.4 The 'Plurade' Case in Five Phases 138
5.5 The Punishment: 'Amende Honorable' 146
5.6 Tongue Punishments 148
5.7 The 'Amende Honorable' as a Grace-Threatening or Face-Threatening Act for the Speaker 151
5.8 Variables in the Speech Situation 153
5.9 Conclusion 156
6. Closing Observations – The Discourse on the Untamed Tongue 157
6.1 Introduction 157
6.2 The Discourse on the Untamed Tongue in the Three Domains 158
6.3 Context 167
6.4 Reflection on Method 172
6.5 Prospects 173
6.6 Finally 175
Appendices 177
Appendix 1: Analysis Model of Harmful Speech Behaviour 177
Appendix 2: Speech Sins in 'Des coninx summe' and 'Spiegel der sonden' 181
Appendix 3: Woodcuts from 'Sottenschip' 185
Bibliography 187
Primary Literature 187
Secondary Literature 194
