Discernment2 and Discernment1: does historical politeness need another binary?

Author:

Paternoster Annick1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Istituto di studi italiani, University of Lugano , Lugano , Switzerland

Abstract

Abstract Historical politeness scholars use Discernment as a second-order metaterm for compulsory social behaviour that is scripted according to circumstances and rank difference. However, in Renaissance courtesy books the Italian verb discernere ‘to discern’ has a first-order meaning: to individually work out appropriate behaviour when the fit of rules to circumstances is unclear. Discernment1 and Discernment2 appear to contradict each other. This paper addresses a theory gap: a theory of Discernment2 must unravel the link with Discernment1, given that Discernment1 functions as a metaterm in prescriptive politeness sources from a historical period for which scholars believe social practices are determined by Discernment2. Using a self-built corpus of ca. one hundred nineteenth-century etiquette books in US-UK English, French, Italian and Dutch, I conduct a semantic analysis of discern* (92 hits) and its collocate “tact”, tact, tatto, takt (575 hits), which point to a practical type of reasoning, to carry out a careful assessment of the unique and complex situation at hand before deciding on a course of action. However detailed etiquette scripts are, discernment (tact) is needed to process the complexity of real-life circumstances. Hence, Discernment1 and 2 appear complementary.

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Reference19 articles.

1. Beeton, Samuel Orchart. 1876? Beeton’s manners of polite society; or, etiquette for ladies, gentlemen and families. London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler.

2. Castiglione, Conte Baldassare. 1528. Il libro del cortegiano. Venice: Aldine Press.

3. Celnart, Mme? 18552. Lessen over de wellevendheid naar de vijfde Fransche uitgave. Leeuwarden: L. Schierbeek.

4. Chambon, Marie. 1907. Dictionnaire du Savoir-Vivre. Paris: P. Lethielleux.

5. Corpus dei galatei italiani dell’Ottocento-CGIO [dataset]. 2022. Compilers Annick Paternoster & Francesca Saltamacchia. Lausanne: Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). Distributed by SWISSUbase. https://doi.org/10.48656/8yy9-q179 (accessed 1 February 2023).

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