The changes in the content, form and function of Danish funerary inscriptions
This article shows the dynamics of changes in form and content of the Danish funerary inscriptions. The basis of the study is a corpus of 250 grave inscriptions from the period of 1770–2003 coming from Copenhagen cemetery Assistens Kirkegård. The study focuses on the changes within three parameters: standards of textuality, type of speech acts and the text function, and leads to the conclusion that the examined speech genre has suffered a significant transformation. Over time, gravestone epitaphs were becoming shorter, more schematic and anonymous. The observed changes are due to general changes in society and culture in particular, with different attitudes towards death: from the perception of death as “the death of another,” through the recognition of the religious meaning of life and death, to making it a taboo and removing from tombstones.