The Tale of the Death of King Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Eugène Vinaver

Helaine Newstead

doi:10.2307/2849451

T/V Pronouns and FTAs in the Works of Sir Thomas Malory: Medieval Politeness and Impoliteness in Directives, Expressives, and Commissives

Studia Anglica Posnaniensia ◽

10.2478/stap-2020-0006 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 55 (1) ◽

pp. 139-176

Author(s):

Malwina Wiśniewska-Przymusińska

Keyword(s):

Middle English ◽

Speech Acts ◽

Speech Act ◽

Speech Act Theory ◽

Sir Thomas Malory ◽

King Arthur ◽

Potential Influence ◽

Second Person ◽

Pragmatic Research ◽

Thomas Malory

Abstract Middle English second person pronouns thou and you (T/V) are considered to be among the means employed by medieval speakers to express their attitudes towards each other. Along with face-threatening acts, the use of these pronouns could indicate power relations or solidarity/distance between the interactants (Taavitsainen & Jucker 2003; Jucker 2010; Mazzon 2010; Bax & Kádár 2011, 2012; Jucker 2012). Using the tools available in pragmatic research, this paper attempts to provide an analysis of selected fragments from The Works of Sir Thomas Malory (Vinaver 1948 [1947]), analysed through the lens of Searle’s speech act theory (1969, 1976). The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the usage of T/V pronouns in polite or impolite contexts depends on the speech act in which they appear or not. Secondly, it looks at the presence of face-threatening acts (FTAs) and their potential influence on polite or impolite pronoun usage. Lastly, the analysis looks at the usage of FTAs within specific speech acts. The fragments used in this article were chosen from five chapters of Malory’s text: The Tale of King Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere, The Morte Arthur, The Noble Tale, and Tristram de Lyones.

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Characterization in Malory's Tale of Arthur and Lucius

PMLA ◽

10.2307/459579 ◽

1950 ◽

Vol 65 (5) ◽

pp. 877-895

Author(s):

Mary E. Dichmann

Keyword(s):

Round Table ◽

Sir Thomas Malory ◽

Careful Examination ◽

King Arthur ◽

Cogent Argument ◽

Thomas Malory

One of the most important recent publications in the field of late mediaeval literature is Eugène Vinaver's edition of The Works of Sir Thomas Malory,1 which has made available a more accurate text for the study of Malory's writings than any scholar has previously had at his disposal. As Vinaver points out in the Preface to this work (i, vi), his edition, which is based on the recently discovered Winchester MS.,2 is much closer to what Malory actually wrote than is Caxton's emended version, and consequently invalidates many conjectures made by those who have known Malory only as he is presented by Caxton. A careful examination of this MS. and a painstaking comparison of it with the sources on which Malory drew have caused Vinaver to reverse several opinions that he previously supported by cogent argument3 and have led him to two general conclusions: (1) that Malory's writings should not be regarded as a unified account of the rise and fall of King Arthur and the Round Table, but rather as eight separate romances whose subjects were drawn independently from the Arthurian cycle (I, XXIX-XXXV) and (2) that the order of composition of the tales was not in the sequence presented by both Caxton and the Winchester MS., since evidence shows (I, XXV-XL) that the story of the war with Rome, which Vinaver calls the Tale of the Noble King Arthur and the Emperor Lucius (Caxton Book v), was written before the Tale of King Arthur (Caxton Books I, II, III, and IV).4

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Sir Thomas Malory and the 'Piteous History of the Morte of King Arthur'

Arthuriana (1928-1930) ◽

10.2307/43860045 ◽

1928 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 30 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Fox

Keyword(s):

Sir Thomas Malory ◽

King Arthur ◽

History Of ◽

Thomas Malory

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Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte DArthur: Selections, ed. Maureen Okun. Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2015, 374 pp., 7 b/w ill.

Mediaevistik ◽

10.3726/med012018_482 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 482-482

Author(s):

Albrecht Classen

Keyword(s):

British Literature ◽

English Literature ◽

Sir Thomas Malory ◽

King Arthur ◽

Morte Darthur ◽

Reasonable Alternative ◽

Complete Work ◽

History Of ◽

Entire History ◽

Thomas Malory

As important as Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Artur certainly proves to be for the entire history of medieval English literature, its massive volume makes it difficult for many of our students today to read the complete work. The present selection offers a more or less reasonable alternative and deserves to be considered for a variety of English literature courses. Maureen Okun offers the following sections: from From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur; from A Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake; from Sir Tristram de Lyones; from The Noble Tale of the Sankgreal; from The Tale of Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere; and from The Death of Arthur.

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