A corpus-based approach to (im)politeness metalanguage: A case study on Shakespeare's plays

In their criticisms of traditional theories politeness, Watts et al. (2005 [1992]) and Eelen (2001) call for first-order approaches to (im)politeness. While ‘discursive approach’ has faced its own criticisms, one useful strand which emerged from this research is a focus on how (im)politeness evaluated discussed. However, compared other (im)politeness, such language received little attention. Studies metalanguage also often preselect lexical items analysis, instance ‘polite’, ‘rude’, ‘courtesy’. Likewise, there still near vacuum in historical stylistic aspects metalanguage. This paper broadly contributes (meta)pragmatics by establishing method inductively locating metalinguistic corpus, specifically employing corpus Shakespeare's plays, doing so locates total 234 forms with collective 4,023 instances 1 million words. study then identifies semantic patterns these terms are used arranging them into five second-order categories, reflecting previous literature. Finally, the briefly considers potential that approach research, as well data particular interests • Hundreds different can evaluate (Im)politeness be discovered explored using corpora. Semantic analysis categorisation plays.