'NO BURDEN TO CARRY': CAPE BRETON PRAGMATICS AND METAPRAGMATICS (NOVA SCOTIA)

This study examines the role of metapragmatic level in pragmatic change and in the shaping of linguistic/social identity in two Cape Breton communities. The metapragmatic level (the cultural conceptualization of the social nature of language) is examined both as a particular sort of "meta-level," unique in its relation with language pragmatics (signs in their relation to interpreters--that is, to sociocultural context), and as a general sort of interpretive level, one of many by which cultures attempt self-understanding.;From a contextual study of data from Cape Breton, the analysis abstracts findings about the metapragmatic level as particular sort of meta-level, and general sort of interpretive level. The various types of cultural knowledge embedded in the metapragmatic level are examined in terms of structuring, affectual components, levels of awareness, social sharedness, and relations with other interpretive levels. The conclusion focuses on the relation between pragmatics and metapragmatics. In its relation with the pragmatic level, we see the unique character of metapragmatics as a true linguistic meta-level with particular significance for language as social praxis. Inasmuch as metapragmatic "filters" change and are changed by pragmatic and social systems, their study elucidates the complex dialectic between interpretive levels generally and the social systems in which cultural interpretations are embedded.;The data upon which this analysis is based were collected during fieldwork in two rural, Gaelic-speaking Cape Breton, Nova Scotian communities. One of the communities is a remote fishing area and predominantly Protestant. The other is a less isolated village with a more varied economic base, and predominantly Roman Catholic. The study presents historical and ethnographic data, tracing changes in the sociolinguistic patterns of each area--and placing each community within wider political and economic contexts. Both the social structural causes and effects of linguistic shift, and the corollaries of such change for sociocultural identity in the communities are examined. In addition, the analysis investigates the role of a metapragmatic "filter" in linguistic shift in Cape Breton. Economic events acted upon that filter to effect linguistic shift, but the metapragmatic filter itself was decisive in determining the shape and the direction of the pragmatic change.