El lenguaje de abuso y autoridad en "Volpone or The Fox".

Resumen

The scope of historical sociolinguistics paves the way for the study oflanguage functions and forms in the social network represented by Ben Jonson's Volpone or The Fax. In this particular case the communicative function chosen is that of abuse and authority which is studied through the behaviour of the different social levels traced in the play. To this end, the paper tries to concentrate on the different «subfunctions» that can be found to transmit abuse and authority as well as on the constructions, structures and other forms which, in a way or other, convey this meaning.