Despite all the attention Puritan sermons have received, no attention has been specifically devoted to the analysis of the two speech acts of blessing and cursing in these sermons from a cognitive-pragmatic point of view. This study aims at doing this, focussing on Winthrop’s A Modell of Christian Charity as a case study. I use the framework provided by the Entrenchment and Conventionalization Model – a usage-based and emergentist model of language knowledge and convention – and analyse how the syntagmatic association of the two speech acts contributes to the conformity profile of the sermon. Moreover, I argue that this linguistic lens can add to the understanding of the ‘enargetic’ rhetoric of the text.

尽管清教徒的布道受到了所有的关注，但没有人特别关注从认知-语用的角度分析这些布道中祝福和诅咒这两种言语行为。本研究旨在做到这一点，重点关注温思罗普的基督教慈善模型作为案例研究。我使用由强化和常规化模型提供的框架——一种基于使用的语言知识和惯例的涌现模型——并分析两种言语行为的组合关联如何有助于布道的一致性。此外，我认为这种语言视角可以增加对文本“充满活力”修辞的理解。