Sincere or Heart-Felt?: Sincerity, Convention, and Bilingualism in French and Spanish Letters

Autor/in	Thomas, Jenelle
Titel	Sincere or Heart-Felt?: Sincerity, Convention, and Bilingualism in French and Spanish Letters
Quelle	In: Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 39 (2020) 1, S.59-80 (22 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0167-8507
DOI	10.1515/multi-2018-0112
Schlagwörter	Letters (Correspondence); Family Relationship; French; Spanish; Language Usage; Semantics; Diachronic Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Social Distance; Pragmatics; Bilingualism; Writing Skills; Authors; Contrastive Linguistics; Second Languages; Transfer of Training; Phrase Structure; Discourse Analysis; Word Frequency; Expository Writing + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Brief; Französisch; Spanisch; Sprachgebrauch; Semantik; Linguistics; Diachronische Sprachbetrachtung; Historische Linguistik; Computerlinguistik; Pragmalinguistik; Bilingualismus; Writing skill; Schreibfertigkeit; Author; Autor; Autorin; Kontrastive Linguistik; Second language; Zweitsprache; Training; Transfer; Ausbildung; Phrasenstruktur; Diskursanalyse; Word analysis; Frequency; Wortanalyse; Häufigkeit
Abstract	The concept of sincerity has links to honesty, openness, and authenticity, including of feelings. As expressions of sincerity become formalized in epistolary practice, however, a tension arises between sincerity and the articulation of it. An examination of a corpus of private family letters in French and Spanish from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shows that use of the word 'sincerity' is much more common as an epistolary formula in French, where it had a broader semantic range, while authors writing in Spanish use other methods to index truth and emotional openness. The most frequent users of this formula are shown to be less skilled writers and bilinguals writing in their second language, suggesting a greater reliance on preconstructed formulae, especially in situations of increased linguistic and social distance. Finally, some bilingual authors transfer the pattern into Spanish, indicating that fixed phrases and formulae are available in a bilingual's linguistic repertoire for pragmatic redeployment. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	De Gruyter Mouton. Available from: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. 121 High Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02110. Tel: 857-284-7073; Fax: 857-284-7358; e-mail: service@degruyter.com; Web site: http://www.degruyter.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01