Journal of Historical Pragmatics - Volume 20, Issue 2, 2019

Starting from a sexual pun in Greek reputedly made by Cleopatra in 31 bce on the word τορύνη (torunē) (‘ladle’), this paper argues that the linguist can successfully take up the “evaluator’s role” (Kádár and Culpeper 2010: 18) in ascertaining the dysphemistic value of words in historical corpora. Typically offensive words constitute a special category of impolite verbal behaviours, and it is argued that a reflection of the historical schemata which guided the use of dysphemistic words by speakers can be detected in patterns of use in extant texts, and used as a guide for their identification. The paper highlights the need for greater openness as to which “denotata” produce offensive words, and more cross-linguistic work on dysphemism. It discusses the problems of interpretation of historical metaphors, and it ends with a detailed discussion of the evidence for the dysphemistic value of the word on which Cleopatra’s pun hinges.

Latin sis, contracted from si uis (‘if you wish’) and commonly attached to imperatives in early Latin, is usually translated as ‘please’, but some scholars have seen it as urgent rather than polite. Here, an examination of all the examples of sis in early Latin (chiefly Plautus and Terence) demonstrates that it is neither polite nor urgent and indeed has no function in the politeness system at all: its function is as a focus-marking clitic particle. This role was only one-step in the long process of development undergone by sis, from an ‘if you wish’ offering genuine alternatives to ‘please’ (at a time before the earliest surviving evidence), then by weakening to the focus-marking particle (in early Latin) and then to disappearance (in Classical Latin).

This paper examines the philosophical treatise De Beneficiis written by Seneca the Younger (c. 4 bce to 65 ce) and discusses some of the insights that it offers regarding the pragmatics of interpersonal encounters in ancient Rome. In particular, it identifies types of appropriate and inappropriate non-verbal behaviour sometimes employed when making requests. Seneca’s close observation of these social nuances alerts us to the importance of non-verbal elements for a complete understanding of (im)politeness in everyday life.

This paper focuses on the concepts of etiquette and politeness within a genre of Buddhist texts known as “vinaya”, or monastic law. These texts were created for the purpose of regulating behavior within the monastic institution. While they are often described by the tradition as a set of ethical principles, the content of monastic law codes also includes many things that would be better categorized as examples of normative protocol, encompassing mundane, everyday social situations that promote harmony between the monastic institution and its economic patrons. I argue here that a distinct concept of politeness can be gleaned from the narratives in these texts, despite the lack of such a category in the tradition’s own account of itself. To illustrate this point, I analyze several stories concerned with the proper deportment of monastics, demonstrating that the standards for monastic behavior were sometimes at odds with the expectations of the lay communities that supported them.

This paper focusses on the role of women within the Homeric household (οἶκος, “oikos”) as related to politeness. The social balance of the household has its fulcrum in the relation between the householder and his wife, and the latter has a crucial role in preserving the face of her husband and hence his authority in the oikos. In practice, to preserve his public image within the oikos, householders delegate a core part of their authority to their wives, and in exchange of this wife-characters such as Penelope or the goddess Hera are keen always to stage the subaltern role, which women have in the Homeric society. The paper compares specific examples of similar politeness strategies to the behaviour of Helen in Book 6 of the Iliad (321–356). Helen enacts a reverse politeness strategy aiming to make her husband Paris’s face collapse in front of Hector. By combining Erving Goffman’s concepts of “face” and “social situation” and the Homeric values of τιμή (“timē”) and αἰδώς (“aidōs”) into a framework for studying politeness in the epics, it becomes possible to shed light on the real power balance that – underneath the veil of politeness – characterises the relationship between the householder and his wife in the Homeric oikos.

This paper presents an analysis of conceptions of linguistic politeness in ancient Rome. Using lexical analysis, it scrutinizes first-order data recoverable from the Latin sources at our disposal, in order to determine the notions and dimensions of politeness that Romans were sensitive to. This kind of approach is helpful, primarily, when developing a suitable theoretical framework for dealing with the particular expressions of linguistic politeness in Latin. Moreover, it provides us with additional explanations of the historical dimension of politeness and of the creation and development of notions of politeness in Europe.