4 Imposing psychological pressure in papyrus request letters: A case study of six Byzantine letters written in an ecclesiastical context (VI–VII CE)
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Aikaterini Koroli
Abstract
The present study deals with two kinds of linguistic strategies attested in private request letters on papyrus, namely politeness strategies and those giving the epistolary text an imperative tone. By means of these coexisting strategies the sender exercises psychological pressure on the recipient, so that the latter satisfies his/her request(s). The object of the offered analysis is a corpus of six well-preserved, already published private papyrus request letters, which are dated to the Byzantine period of Egypt (330-641 CE) and written in an ecclesiastical milieu, i.e. they are sent to and received by clerics or monks. The selected letters are examined from the perspective of the interaction between politeness and imperative tone strategies. My aim is to explore whether they bear common features that allow us to speak of a special, “ecclesiastical” style of Byzantine letter writing in the papyri.
Abstract
The present study deals with two kinds of linguistic strategies attested in private request letters on papyrus, namely politeness strategies and those giving the epistolary text an imperative tone. By means of these coexisting strategies the sender exercises psychological pressure on the recipient, so that the latter satisfies his/her request(s). The object of the offered analysis is a corpus of six well-preserved, already published private papyrus request letters, which are dated to the Byzantine period of Egypt (330-641 CE) and written in an ecclesiastical milieu, i.e. they are sent to and received by clerics or monks. The selected letters are examined from the perspective of the interaction between politeness and imperative tone strategies. My aim is to explore whether they bear common features that allow us to speak of a special, “ecclesiastical” style of Byzantine letter writing in the papyri.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Contents VII
- List of contributors XI
- The Greek Alphabet XV
- List of abbreviations XVII
- 1 Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Novel questions and approaches 1
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Part I: VARIETIES OF POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 2 Tracking down lects in Roman Egypt 17
- 3 Idiolect in focus: Two brothers in the Memphis Sarapieion (II BCE) 39
- 4 Imposing psychological pressure in papyrus request letters: A case study of six Byzantine letters written in an ecclesiastical context (VI–VII CE) 75
- 5 Greek in Egypt or Egyptian Greek? Syntactic regionalisms (IV CE) 115
- 6 In search of an Egyptian Greek lexicon in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt 141
- 7 Byzantine literature in “classicised” genres: Some grammatical realities (V–XIV CE) 163
- 8 From highly classicizing to common prose (XIII–XIV CE): The Metaphrasis of Niketas Choniates’ History 179
- 9 Back to the future: Akritic light on diachronic variation in Cappadocian (East Asia Minor Greek) 201
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Part II: DIMENSIONS OF VARIATION IN POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 10 Tense variation in Ptolemaic papyri: Towards a grammar of epistolary dialogue 243
- 11 The Classical norm and varieties of Post-classical Greek: Expressions of anteriority and posteriority in a corpus of official documents (I–II CE) 265
- 12 Orthographic variation and register in the corpus of Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE–800 CE) 299
- 13 The Greek phonology of a tax collector in Egypt in the first century CE 327
- 14 Metrical variation in Byzantine colophons (XI–XV CE): The example of ἡ μὲν χεὶρ ἡ γράψασα 353
- 15 Arguing and narrating: Text type and linguistic variation in tenth-century Greek 369
- 16 The distinctiveness of syntax for varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Linguistic upgrading from the third century BCE to the tenth century CE 381
- Index locorum 415
- Index nominum 423
- Index rerum 425
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Contents VII
- List of contributors XI
- The Greek Alphabet XV
- List of abbreviations XVII
- 1 Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Novel questions and approaches 1
-
Part I: VARIETIES OF POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 2 Tracking down lects in Roman Egypt 17
- 3 Idiolect in focus: Two brothers in the Memphis Sarapieion (II BCE) 39
- 4 Imposing psychological pressure in papyrus request letters: A case study of six Byzantine letters written in an ecclesiastical context (VI–VII CE) 75
- 5 Greek in Egypt or Egyptian Greek? Syntactic regionalisms (IV CE) 115
- 6 In search of an Egyptian Greek lexicon in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt 141
- 7 Byzantine literature in “classicised” genres: Some grammatical realities (V–XIV CE) 163
- 8 From highly classicizing to common prose (XIII–XIV CE): The Metaphrasis of Niketas Choniates’ History 179
- 9 Back to the future: Akritic light on diachronic variation in Cappadocian (East Asia Minor Greek) 201
-
Part II: DIMENSIONS OF VARIATION IN POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 10 Tense variation in Ptolemaic papyri: Towards a grammar of epistolary dialogue 243
- 11 The Classical norm and varieties of Post-classical Greek: Expressions of anteriority and posteriority in a corpus of official documents (I–II CE) 265
- 12 Orthographic variation and register in the corpus of Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE–800 CE) 299
- 13 The Greek phonology of a tax collector in Egypt in the first century CE 327
- 14 Metrical variation in Byzantine colophons (XI–XV CE): The example of ἡ μὲν χεὶρ ἡ γράψασα 353
- 15 Arguing and narrating: Text type and linguistic variation in tenth-century Greek 369
- 16 The distinctiveness of syntax for varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Linguistic upgrading from the third century BCE to the tenth century CE 381
- Index locorum 415
- Index nominum 423
- Index rerum 425
