Positive-Politeness Strategies in the Dialogue Opening by Plautus and Terence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23808/rel.v17i0.82782Keywords:
Plautus; Terence; dialogue opening; positive politeness; greeting.Abstract
The article identifies and describes the politeness conveyed in the dialogue openings of the comedies by Plautus and Terence. In order to reach this objective, it combines the classical theory by Brown & Levinson (1987) with the tools of the Conversational Analysis. Thus, the relation between various face-work mechanisms, on one hand, and the phase of the dialogue and the communicative action, on the other, is being recognized and highlighted.
After the theoretical introduction, the article comments briefly on the context elements which allow to initiate the dialogue «baldly on record» without causing a facethreat to the participants. With more details, the work delves into various strategies invested by positive politeness. The analysis of the presented material suggests that they are governed by the following rules: (i) to convey that the hearer is admirable, interesting (etc.), (ii) to claim common ground between the interlocutors. These general strategies are accomplished by the expression of joy and surprise, in-group identification, greeting formulae with a good-wishing message and by conveying interest through a small talk sequence.
Finally, throughout the article, it is stressed that politeness and its –more or less– conventionalized tokens are subject to constant discursive (re)evaluations.
Downloads
References
Barsby, J. (2001) (ed.): Terence. Comedies. Vol. 1-2, Cambridge- Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.
Barrios-Lech , P. (2016): Linguistic Interaction in Roman Comedy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Berger, Ł. (2017): «Bendecir para saludar en Plauto. Redistribución de la función pragmática», Emerita 85.2, 261-287.
Berger, Ł. (2014): «Starzec i grzeczność językowa w komediach Plauta», Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium Graecae et Latinae, 24.1, 61-82.
Braun, F. (1988): Terms of address: Problems of patterns and usage in various languages and cultures, Berlín-Nueva York-Amsterdam, Walter de Gruyter.
Briz, A. (2000): «Las unidades de la conversación», RILCE 16.2, 225-246.
Brown, P. & Levinson , S.C. (1987), Politeness: Some universals in language usage, Cambridge.
Claridge, C. & Arnovick, L. (2010): «Pragmaticalisation and Discursisation» en Jucker, A.H. & Taavitsainen, I. (eds.), Historical pragmatics, Berlín-Nueva York, 165-192.
Correa, S. (2009): «El humor como estrategia de cortesía positiva en De oratore, 2. 216-90», Argos 32.2, 133-145.
Culpeper, J. (1996): «Towards an anatomy of impoliteness», Journal of Pragmatics 25.3, 349-367.
De Melo, W. (2011-2013) (ed.): Plautus. Comedies. Vol. 1-5, Cambridge Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.
Dickey, E. (2002): Latin Forms of Address, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Dunsch, B. (2001): Plautus Mercator: A Commentary (tesis doctoral, The University of St. Andrews).
Dunsch , B. (2014): «Religion in Roman Comedy», en Fontaine, M. & Scafuro, A. C. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Comedy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 634-652.
Duranti , A. (1997): «Universal and Culture‐Specific Properties of Greetings», Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 7.1, 63-97.
Dutsch, D. (2008): Feminine Discourse in Roman Comedy: On Echoes and Voices, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Echols, E.C. (1950): «The Quid-Greeting in Plautus and Terence», CJ 45.4, 188–190.
Eelen, G. (2001): A critique of Politeness Theories, Manchester, St. Jerome Pub.
Ferri, R. (2009): «Politeness in Latin Comedy. Some Preliminary Thoughts», MD 61, 15-28.
Firth, R. (1972): «Verbal and bodily rituals of greeting and parting», en La Fontaine, J. S. (ed.), The interpretation of ritual, London, Tavistock Publications,1-38.
Forberg, M. (1913): De salutandi formulis Plautinis et Terentianis, Weidae Thuringorum, Thomas et Hubert.
Goffman, E. (1955): «On Face-Work. An Analysis of Ritual Elemets in Social Interaction», Psychiatry 18.3, 213-231.
Goldbeck, F. (2010): Salutationes: die Morgenbegrüßungen in Rom in der Republik und der frühen Kaiserzeit, Berlín, Walter de Gruyter.
Hall, J. (1998): «The Deference-greeting in Roman Society», Maia 50.3, 413-426
Hall, J. (2009): Politeness and Politics in Cicero’s Letters, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Hannay, M. & Kroon , C. (2005): «Acts and the relationship between discourse and grammar», Functions of Language 12.1, 87-124.
Hanson, J. A. (1959): «Plautus as a Source Book for Roman Religion», TAPhA 90, 48-101.
Hoffmann, M. (1983): «Conversational Openings in the Comedies of Plautus», en Pinkster, H. (ed.), Latin Linguistics and Linguistics Theory, Amsterdam-Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 217-226.
Iurescia, F. (2017): Credo iam ut solet iurgabit: pragmatica della lite a Roma. Tesi di Dottorato, Università di Pisa.
Jenkins , T.E. (2005): «At play with writing: letters and readers in Plautus», TAPhA 135.2, 359-392.
Kaster, R. A. (2005): Emotion, Restraint, and Community in Ancient Rome, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Krylová, B. (2008): «Verbal Duelling in Ancient Roman Comedy», comunicación resentanda en 4th International Symposium on Politeness «East Meets West», Budapest, 2-4/07/2008.
Laver, J. (1975): «Communicative function of phatic communion», en Kendon, A. & Harris, R. M. & Key, R. M. (eds.), Organization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction, The Hague, Mouton, 215-238.
Laver, J. (1981): «Linguistic routines and politeness in greeting and parting», en Coulmas, F. (ed.), Conversational routine, The Hague, Mouton, 289-304.
Leech, G. (1983): Principles of Pragmatics, London-Nueva York, Longman.
Leon, H. J. (1939): «Morituri te salutamus», TAPhA 70, 46-50.
Letessier, P. (2000): «La salutation chez Plaute. Adaptation ludique d’un rituel social», Lalies 20, 151-163.
Levinson, S.C. (1983): Pragmatics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Lilja, S. (1965): Terms of abuse in Roman comedy, Helsinki, Finnish Academy. Malinowski, B. (1923): «The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages», en Ogden, C.K. & Richards, I.A. (eds.), The Meaning of Meaning, Nueva York, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 296-336.
Maltby, R. (1979): «Linguistic characterization of old men in Terence». CPh 74.2, 136-147.
Mc Carthy, K. (2000): Slaves, masters, and the art of authority in Plautine comedy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Montserrat Roig, C. (2015): «Otras perspectivas para el análisis lingüístico de Plauto: los vocativos insultantes en la reacción conversacional», Minerva 28, 133-161,
Müller, R. (1997): Sprechen und Sprache. Dialoglinguistische Studien zu Terenz, Heidelberg, Universitätsverlag C. Winter.
Pavlidou, T-S. (2014): «Phases in discourse», en Schneider, K.P. & Barron, A. (eds.), Pragmatics of discourse (Vol. 3). Berlin-Boston, Walter de Gruyter, 353-383.
Poccetti, P. (2010): «Greeting and farewell expressions as evidence for colloquial language: between literary and epigraphical texts», en Dickey, E. & Chahoud, A. (eds.), Colloquial and Literary Latin, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 100-126.
Roesch, S. (2007): «Les débuts de dialogue dans la comédie et la tragédie latines», en Bureau, B. & Nicolas, C. (eds.), Commencer et finir dans les littératures antiques (Colloque de Lyon, 29-30 sept. 2006), Lyon, 207-222.
Sacks, H. (1975): «Everyone has to lie», en Blount, B. & Sanches, M. (eds.), Sociocultural dimensions of language use, Nueva York, Academic Press, 57-79.
Scafuro, A. (2004): «The Rigmarole of the Parasite’s Contract for a Prostitute in Asinaria: Legal Documents in Plautus and His Predecessors», LICS 3.4, 1-21.
Schegloff, E.A. (1968): «Sequencing in Conversational Openings», American Anthropologist, 70.6, 1075–1095.
Schegloff, E.A. (1986): «The routine as achievement», Human studies 9.2-3, 111-151.
Searle, J.R. (1969): Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Torrego Salcedo, M. E. (2013): «Iubeo salvere: una forma de saludo con directivo léxico», en Beltrán, J. A. et al. (eds.), Otium cum dignitate, Zaragoza, 173-84.
Unceta Gómez, L. (2010): «La expresión del agradecimiento en la comedia latina», en P. Anreiter, P & Kienpointner, M. (eds.), Latin Linguistics today. Proceedings of the XVth International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, Innsbruck, 625-637.
Unceta Gómez, L. (2012): «Cuando los sentimientos irrumpen: valores expresivos de las interjecciones primarias en las comedias de Plauto», en López Gregoris, R. (ed.), Estudios sobre teatro romano: el mundo de los sentimientos y su expresión, Zaragoza, 347-395.
Unceta Gómez, L. (2014a) : «La politesse linguistique en latin. Bilan d’une étude en cours», Dictionnaire Historique et Encyclopédie Linguistique du Latin (DHELL), http://www.linglat.paris-sorbonne.fr/encyclopedie_linguistique:notions_linguistiques:syntaxe:formules_de_politesse [último acceso: 22/08/2017].
Unceta Gómez, L. (2014b): «Pedir perdón en latín. El acto de habla de la disculpa en las obras de Plauto y Terencio», Emerita, 82.1, 69-97.
Unceta Gómez, L. (2016a): «Conceptualization of Linguistic Politeness in Latin: the Emic Perspective», comunicación presentada en «Historical Politeness Symposium», University of East Anglia, en junio de 2016.
Unceta Gómez, L. (2016b): «Cuando los sentimientos irrumpen (2). Análisis de las interjecciones secundarias en las comedias de Plauto», en. Penas Ibáñez, A. & García-Hernández, B. (ed), Semántica latina y románica. Unidades de significado conceptual y procedimental, Berna, Peter Lang, 213-241.
Unceta Gómez, L. (2016c): «La respuesta al agradecimiento en la comedia de Plauto y Terencio», Pallas, 102, 229-236.
Unceta Gómez, L. (2017a): «Expressing Happiness as a Manifestation of Positive Politeness in Roman Comedy», comunicación presentada en ICLL München, 26/04/2017.
Unceta Gómez, L. (2017b): «Gli studi sulla (s)cortesia linguistica in latino. Possibilità di analisi e proposte per il futuro» (en prensa).
Unceta Gómez, L. (2017c), «Pragmaticalización y lenguas clásicas: el caso de latín abi», Graeco-Latina Brunesia, 22.1, 207-222.
Watts, R.J. (2003), Politeness. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Wechsler, M.G. (2015): «Greetings – Judaism», en Hirsch-Luipold, R. (col.), Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, vol. 10-11, De Gruyter, 924–926.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Revista de Estudios Latinos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The originals published in the printed and electronic editions of this journal are the property of the Revista de Estudios Latinos and can be circulated as long as the original source and authorship is made clear in any reproduction, full or partial, of the same, and as long as this is not done for commercial purposes.
