The pragmatics of liturgical discourse : with special reference to English Reformed worship and the preformative language doxology of Jean LadriĂšre
This study subjects Christian liturgy to linguistic-pragmatic analysis. It does so first, by 'anatomising' a new discipline of 'liturgical pragmatics' and second, by putting this anatomy into operation. In each case, it proceeds in accordance with David Crystal's three-fold schema for religious language research: as such, it coordinates methodological, theoretical and empirical interpretations in a survey which claims to be more systematic and contemporary than previous work on the pragmatics of sacral discourse. Specifically, it concentrates on the worship of the English Reformed church - a domain which has thus far been overlooked in studies of liturgical language-use, but one whose distinctive bias towards extemporary prayer invites the approach proposed. Methodologically, liturgic exegesis is shown to benefit from engagement with the interpretative strategies of speech act theory, implicature, relevance theory, extensional pragmatics, conversational pragmatics and socio-pragmatics. Theoretically. Jean Ladriere's model of liturgical language performativity is seen to provide a valuable basis for rapprochement between pragmatic principles and Christian doxology; nevertheless, it is argued that an even closer
Hilborn, David Henry
BL Religion ; BX Christian denominations
The pragmatics of liturgical discourse : with special reference to English Reformed worship and the preformative language doxology of Jean LadriĂšre. This study subjects Christian liturgy to linguistic-pragmatic analysis. It does so first, by 'anatomising' a new discipline of 'liturgical pragmatics' and second, by putting this anatomy into operation. In each case, it proceeds in accordance with David Crystal's three-fold schema for religious language research: as such, it coordinates methodological, theoretical and empirical interpretations in a survey which claims to be more systematic and contemporary than previous work on the pragmatics of sacral discourse. Specifically, it concentrates on the worship of the English Reformed church - a domain which has thus far been overlooked in studies of liturgical language-use, but one whose distinctive bias towards extemporary prayer invites the approach proposed. Methodologically, liturgic exegesis is shown to benefit from engagement with the interpretative strategies of speech act theory, implicature, relevance theory, extensional pragmatics, conversational pragmatics and socio-pragmatics. Theoretically. Jean Ladriere's model of liturgical language performativity is seen to provide a valuable basis for rapprochement between pragmatic principles and Christian doxology; nevertheless, it is argued that an even closer
pragmatic liturgical discourse special_reference english reformed worship language jean study subject christian liturgy linguistic pragmatic analysis first new discipline liturgical pragmatic second put anatomy operation case proceeds accordance three_fold schema religious language coordinate methodological_theoretical empirical interpretation survey claim systematic contemporary previous_work pragmatic sacral discourse specifically concentrate worship english reformed church domain thus_far overlooked study liturgical language_use whose distinctive bias_towards prayer invite propose methodologically exegesis show benefit engagement interpretative_strategy speech_act_theory implicature relevance_theory extensional pragmatic conversational pragmatic socio pragmatics theoretically jean model liturgical language performativity see provide_valuable basis rapprochement pragmatic principle christian nevertheless argue even closer