Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 An interdisciplinary approach to medical writing in Early Modern English
- 2 Medical texts in 1500–1700 and the corpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts
- 3 Medical literacies and medical culture in early modern England
- 4 Verbs of knowing: discursive practices in early modern vernacular medicine
- 5 Defining in Early Modern English medical texts
- 6 Dissemination and appropriation of medical knowledge: humoral theory in Early Modern English medical writing and lay texts
- 7 Code-switching in Early Modern English medical writing
- 8 New arguments for new audiences: a corpus-based analysis of interpersonal strategies in Early Modern English medical recipes
- 9 Efficacy phrases in Early Modern English medical recipes
- 10 Medical pamphlets: controversy and advertising
- 11 The development of specialized discourse in the Philosophical Transactions
- 12 The expression of stance in early (1665–1712) publications of the Philosophical Transactions and other contemporary medical prose: innovations in a pioneering discourse
- Appendix A Raw data tables corresponding to Figures 4.3–4.14
- Appendix B Raw data tables corresponding to Figures 8.1–8.4
- Appendix C Stance markers used in the analysis in Chapter 12
- Appendix D Preliminary list of texts in the corpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts (EMEMT)
- Bibliography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 An interdisciplinary approach to medical writing in Early Modern English
- 2 Medical texts in 1500–1700 and the corpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts
- 3 Medical literacies and medical culture in early modern England
- 4 Verbs of knowing: discursive practices in early modern vernacular medicine
- 5 Defining in Early Modern English medical texts
- 6 Dissemination and appropriation of medical knowledge: humoral theory in Early Modern English medical writing and lay texts
- 7 Code-switching in Early Modern English medical writing
- 8 New arguments for new audiences: a corpus-based analysis of interpersonal strategies in Early Modern English medical recipes
- 9 Efficacy phrases in Early Modern English medical recipes
- 10 Medical pamphlets: controversy and advertising
- 11 The development of specialized discourse in the Philosophical Transactions
- 12 The expression of stance in early (1665–1712) publications of the Philosophical Transactions and other contemporary medical prose: innovations in a pioneering discourse
- Appendix A Raw data tables corresponding to Figures 4.3–4.14
- Appendix B Raw data tables corresponding to Figures 8.1–8.4
- Appendix C Stance markers used in the analysis in Chapter 12
- Appendix D Preliminary list of texts in the corpus of Early Modern English Medical Texts (EMEMT)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The large field of medical writing in Early Modern English is still a fairly uncharted area from a linguistic point of view, and this is what our book sets out to explore. In language-external developments, the era between 1500 and 1700 is remarkable: the world view gradually changed from Ptolemaic to Copernican, new continents were discovered, and people ceased to believe in received knowledge. Scientific and medical writing became more diversified with the new medium of the printing press, and the position of English, which had begun to emerge as a language of science and medicine from the shadow of Latin during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, became stronger. Medieval conventions continued in medical writing well beyond the Late Middle English period as early printed books imitated manuscripts, and it took at least half a century or more for a new print culture to break away from the old. Generic developments were dynamic: during the two centuries, the top genres of old scholasticism declined, lost their position as the spearhead of science and were adapted to writings that dealt with established or inherited knowledge. This process created a vacuum at the top. Institutional developments gave an incentive to further changes, and by the time of the Royal Society the written word in the printed form had achieved a leading role in communicating science. Members of the new, close-knit discourse community made a conscious decision to communicate their scientific findings and opinions by writing in the new Philosophical Transactions.
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- Medical Writing in Early Modern English , pp. xvii - xviiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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