Dont lose your head:

Utopia as an attack on the king

Peter Sipes 2014 NEIU student research symposium

Positioning
the words the speaker chooses inevitably contain images and metaphors which both assume and invoke the ways of being that the participants take themselves to be involved in. (Davies and Harr, 1990) More positions Utopia as England in disguise. More positions the king favorably while getting ready to attack.

Lexical analysis
Words that are more frequent than expected may reveal what the work is about. But how? Primary corpus the discourse under analysis Reference corpus another discourse to compare against

Politics or religion?
Political talk:
publicus 105 tokens (38.13/10k) rex 37 tokens (13.43/10k) magistratus 19 tokens (6.90/10k) miles 11 tokens (3.99/10k) legatus 12 tokens (4.36/10k) lex 50 tokens (18.16/10k)

Religious talk:
sacer 9 tokens (3.26/10k) deus 39 tokens (14.16/10k) sacerdos 24 tokens (8.71/10k) religio 29 tokens (10.53/10k)

Politics or religion?
Political talk in Utopia:
publicus 105 tokens (38.13/10k) rex 37 tokens (13.43/10k) magistratus 19 tokens (6.90/10k) miles 11 tokens (3.99/10k) legatus 12 tokens (4.36/10k) lex 50 tokens (18.16/10k)

Political talk in Cicero:

publicus 106.6551.08/10k rex 124.12/10k magistratus 10.312.24/10k miles 2.240.48/10k legatus 5.830/10k lex 43.0213.00/10k

Politics or religion?
Religious talk:
sacer 9 tokens (3.26/10k) deus 39 tokens (14.16/10k) sacerdos 24 tokens (8.71/10k) religio 29 tokens (10.53/10k)

Religious talk in the Vulgate:

sacer 0.950.01/10k deus 103.0956.22/10k sacerdos 26.193.32/10k religio .209/10k

But is Utopia England?

Descriptions of towns
haec est regia illa totius Angliae civitas LONDINIUM ad fluvium Themesim sita. Caesari, ut plures existimant Trinobantium nuncupata multarum gentium comertio mobilitata, exculta domib[us] ornata te[m]plis, excelsa arcibus, claris ingeniis, viris omnium artium doctrinarumque genere praestantibus, percelebris. Denique omnium rerum copia, atque opum excellentia mirabilis. Inuebit in eam totius orbis opes ipse Thamesis, onerariis navibus per sexaginta millia passuum, ad urbem praealto alveo navigabilis. situm est igitur Amaurotum, in leni deiectu montis, gura fere quadrata. nam latitudo eius paulo infra collis incoepta uerticem, milibus passuum duobus ad umen Anydrum pertinet, secundum ripam aliquanto longior.

Positioning the King

Right in the opening: Cum non exigui momenti negotia quaedam inuictissimus Angliae Rex Henricus eius nominis octauus, omnibus egregii principis artibus ornatissimus, cum serenissimo castellae principe Carolo controuersa nuper habuisset

Of course the irony