Contrastive Pragmatics in a Diachronic Perspective: Insights from Othello

Abstract

Abstract The paper provides an overview of the interface of contrastive and historical pragmatics and a case study of Othello’s monologue. The emerging lines of development at the cross-roads of contrastive and historical pragmatics cover, in particular, speech acts, forms of discursive behaviour and stance. In the analysis, German, Swedish, Finnish and Polish translations from different periods are compared to show differences in the above-mentioned features. The illustrations are contextualised in order to show the discursive sensitivity of these linguistic items and their cross-linguistic diversity. The study reveals some tendencies and diachronic developments in translation strategies and underlines the need to include historical analyses in the realm of contrastive research.