Linguistic Interaction in Roman Comedy
Cambridge University Press, 5/26/2016
EAN 9781107129825, ISBN10: 1107129826
Hardcover, 410 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm
Language: English
This book presents a comprehensive account of features of Latin that emerge from dialogue: commands and requests, command softeners and strengtheners, statement hedges, interruptions, attention-getters, greetings and closings. In analyzing these features, Peter Barrios-Lech employs a quantitative method and draws on all the data from Roman comedy and the fragments of Latin drama. In the first three parts, on commands and requests, particles, attention-getters and interruptions, the driving questions are firstly - what leads the speaker to choose one form over another? And secondly - how do the playwrights use these features to characterize on the linguistic level? Part IV analyzes dialogues among equals and slave speech, and employs data-driven analyses to show how speakers enact roles and construct relationships with each other through conversation. The book will be important to all scholars of Latin, and especially to scholars of Roman drama.
1. Introduction
Part I. The Latin Directive
Introduction to Part I
2. The moods of command – imperatives and subjunctives
3. Prohibitions in Early Latin
4. Indirect requests – questions and statements
5. The 'can you' request and others
Conclusion to Part I
Part II. Interactional Particles in Roman Comedy
6. How to soften a command
7. How to strengthen a command
8. How to soften a statement in Latin
Part III. Structuring Conversation
9. Interruptions and attention-getters
10. Openings and closings in Roman comedy
Conclusion to Parts I-III
summary of findings
Part IV. Interpreting Interactions in Roman Comedy
11. Discourse in Roman comedy
12. Role shifts, speech shifts
Appendix 1. Speech and character types in Roman comedy
Appendix 2. About the directive database
Appendix 3. Politeness phenomena in Roman comedy.