Quoting in Parliamentary Question Time: Exploring Recent Change (Studies in English Language) - Softcover

Reber, Elisabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108799043 ISBN 13: 9781108799041

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2025

Synopsis

Why do recordings of speakers engaging in reported speech at British Prime Minister's Questions from the 1970s–80s sound so distant to us? This cutting-edge study explores how the practices of quoting have changed at parliamentary question time in light of changing conventions and an evolving media landscape. Comparing data from authentic audio and video recordings from 1978 to 1988 and from 2003 to 2013, it provides evidence for qualitative and quantitative changes at the micro level (e.g., grammaticalisation processes in the reporting clause) and in more global structures (e.g., rhetorical patterns, and activities). These analytic findings contribute to the theoretical modelling of evidentiality in English, our understanding of constructions, interaction, and change, and of PMQs as an evolving community of practice. One of the first large-scale studies of recent change in an interactional genre of English, this ground-breaking monograph offers a framework for a diachronic interactional (socio-) linguistic research programme.

About this title

About the Author

Elisabeth Reber is a senior lecturer, University of Würzburg, and currently a replacement professor in English Linguistics, University of Heidelberg. Her work focuses on Interactional (Socio-)Linguistics, Construction Grammar, and Multimodality. She has published the monograph Affectivity in Interaction (2012), numerous co-edited volumes, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108799043
• ISBN 13: 9781108799041
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 366