session 10: looking back at the bast as "Bygonese"

estrangement

creating dissonance between the real world and the fictional world in which a story takes place, can be produced through linguistic means, e.g. naming, use of new/unfamiliar words, employment of entirely (re-)constructed languages

Bygonese

a sort of dialect that is inaccurate but plausible

the result of the compromise of portraying language in the past accurately and the necessity of using language that is sufficiently familiar to readers and to avoid over-estrangement

linguistic strategies

avoiding any form deemed to modern

• contractions as well as intensifiers ( like so) → strong association with present day informal speech → past English sepakers are believed to have been more formal, respectful

• conservative spoken language

• use of full forms

• use of modals: must, shall, need

• avoidance of semi-modals (have to, need to, be going to)

modals and semi modals

modals: must, shall and need have been declining in the 20th century, esp. in spoken language

semi-modals: be going to, need to, have to have increased, esp. in spoken language

results Birdgerton and Downton Abbey

• uncontracted forms and declining modals overrepresented in Bridgerton

• both overuse must