Speech Classification and the Works of Jaume Roig

Classification Criteria of Speeches

Field of use: Different areas of communication (academic, journalistic, etc.).

Purpose:

• Functional: Inform, examine, sort.
• Artistic or aesthetic: Literary genres (related to cinema or literature).

Structure: Type of text.

Sequences used:

• Narrative: Tells about facts.
• Descriptive: Defines objects, processes, and situations.
• Expository: Exhibits complete information and expands knowledge.
• Instructive: Regulates future behavior.
• Argumentative: Convinces, expresses opinion, and guides conduct.

Participants (Sender and Receiver):

• Value: Formal and informal.
• Exchange: Monologues and dialogues.
• Positioning of the issuer: Modalized (opinion) and non-modalized (no opinion).

Channel: Oral or written.

Jaume Roig and Espill

Life of Jaume Roig

Timeline: Valencia (1400) – Benimàmet (1478).

Personal Life: Married to Isabel Pellicer, with whom he had six children. He was a model of bourgeois life, managing wealth, houses, and land.

Professional Career:

• Son of a family of doctors; studied at the universities of Lleida and Paris.
• Considered an important citizen and physician in Valencia.
• Administrator: Hospital of Clapers (1450–1462) and manager of the Hospital of the Innocents (1468).
• Medical roles: Medical examiner, doctor to the royal family (Queen Maria), and physician of the Convent of the Trinity.
• Civic roles: City Council member and benefactor of the Church of St. Nicholas and the Convent of the Trinity.

Literary Influences

• The Bible
• Latin classics
• Contemporary poetry and books of chivalry

Major Works

• Works and Praise of the Virgin Mary (1474)
• Espill (or Book of Women)

The Espill: Analysis

Manuscript History:

• Vatican Library (1490–1492): Oldest specimen available.
• Valencia (1531): First printed edition.
• Eighteenth-century: Reprinted edition.

Structure and Style:

• Consultation: Father John Fabra.
• Versification: Heptasyllabic verses with consonant rhyme.
• Themes: The treatment of women; author's perspective and dating of the work.
• Stylistic features:
  • Hyperbaton: Syntactic swapping for rhyme and meter.
  • Asyndeton: Dispensing with conjunctions.
  • Pace: Fast-paced with inherent difficulty in understanding.

Book Divisions

1. First book: His youth.
2. Second book: When he was married.
3. Third book: The lesson of Solomon.
4. Fourth book: On becoming widowed.