Abstract
A small electronic corpus of seventeenth-century Quaker texts in prose broadside format, published between 1658 and 1675, was subjected to linguistic analysis. Comparisons are made with similar non-Quaker broadside texts as well as wider Quaker writings. The study looks into pragmatic functions and organisation of the early Quaker broadsides as well as certain surface linguistic structures. Evidence is thus provided for aspects of the Quaker writers’ message in England. This was an expression of urgency and prophetic warnings of the danger of not turning to the Truth as the Quakers experienced it. The texts are shown to have been written in a strikingly direct personal communicative style, more evident in the broadsides even than in the Quaker texts found in a wider electronic corpus.
Keywords
language, corpus analysis, Seventeenth-century, prose broadsides
How to Cite
Roads, J., (2012) “Early Quaker Broadsides Corpus: A Case Study”, Quaker Studies 17(1), 27–47. doi: https://doi.org/10.3828/quaker.17.1.27
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