From pray to please

Abstract

Polite uses of pray and please are investigated in the Old Bailey Corpus (1720–1913), whose extensive sociolinguistic annotation enables a sociolinguistic approach. The fully pragmaticalised marker pray declines into insignificance in the nineteenth century. Please is attested in a great variety of constructions, which are strong in the eighteenth but wane in the nineteenth centuries, whilst pragmaticalising please rises strongly in the nineteenth. Whereas pray is used within court interaction, please is exclusively quoted from outside the courtroom. Socio-linguistically, pray is preferred overall by both the higher and the lower classes, but incoming please is used more by higher-class speakers. Whilst pray is also used more frequently by both genders, particularly between 1720 and 1839, please shows a higher use by women. According to courtroom roles, lawyers and judges completely avoid please , which is only used by lay speakers.