A Pragmatic Approach to the Wife of Bath's Tale

Author / Editor
Fernandez Cuesta, Julia

Title
A Pragmatic Approach to the Wife of Bath's Tale

Published
SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature 3 (1993): 103-16.

Description
Pragmatic analysis suggests that the Wife of Bath in WBP and the loathly lady in WBT flout the "Quality and Quantity maxims of the Cooperative Principle" and the "maxims of Tact" of the "Politeness Principle." Targets of Chaucer's satire, the two characters seek to "manipulate rather than cooperate."

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.