A historical pragmatic analysis of Marie de Nassau's French-language correspondence with her father, 1573-1577

Personal correspondence provides valuable insight into the lives of early modern young women and their expected roles and responsibilities. The daughter-father relationship is of particular interest - there are relatively few examples of French-language daughter-father correspondence in existing historical pragmatic and sociolinguistic studies of early modern women’s lives when compared with other languages. Informed by research on early modern women’s correspondence, the family, and historical pragmatic methods, this study focuses on 22 French-language letters (around 16000 words) sent by Marie de Nassau (1556-1616) to her father Guillaume d’Orange (1533-1584) during her later adolescence, 1573-1577. Her correspondence is analysed in conjunction with examples from sixteenth century French-language letter-writing manuals, revealing her behaviours through three key pragmatic features: formulaic sequences, politeness strategies, and speech acts.
Qualitative analysis of Marie’s correspondence shows that speech acts and politeness strategies work to maintain the daughter-father relationship during periods of absence, with formulaic sequences providing structure. Broadly speaking, Marie employs commissive speech acts, negative politeness, text-constitutive formulae, and Christian-ritual formulae to emphasise deference to her father. Conversely, expressive speech acts, positive politeness, and intersubjective formulae highlight their kinship. Her use of formulaic sequences not found in manuals suggests that function was more important than form; her politeness strategies characterise the daughter-father relationship, made evident through formal address terms and markers of deference and kinship; and her speech acts show the potential effects at different functional levels of the text, discursive practice, and social practice. This study contributes a detailed example of French-language correspondence to the fields of historical sociolinguistics and pragmatics, crucially prioritising the daughter’s voice. Additionally, it demonstrates the complex roles played by early modern young women as they were socialised into their adult lives, with Marie holding greater responsibility for the household, family, and her father’s affairs than one might expect of the ‘dutiful daughter’.