Modal may in requests

Abstract

This study applies House’s (1996, 2005) dimensions of cross-cultural differences as a diagnostic tool to investigate regional variation regarding two pragmalinguistic requestive patterns with may in Scottish and English non-private letters (1500 to 1700). The dimensional scheme proves a useful tool for explaining similarities and differences in the requestive behaviour in the two varieties. It is shown that, in the sixteenth century, grounders with may are part of a set of downgrading devices employed by letter-writers to counteract the directness and self-orientation particularly of performative requests in both the Scottish and the English correspondence. Moreover, the dimensional analysis explicates the cross-varietal differences regarding may in the seventeenth century correspondence by linking the rise of mitigating may in performative requests in the Scottish letters to the increased self-orientation towards the letter-writer, which is not counter-balanced by other downgraders.