Advertisement

Russian Linguistics

, Volume 35, Issue 1, pp 1–11 | Cite as

Don’t shoot the messenger. A pragmaphilological approach to birchbark letter no. 497 from Novgorod

  • Jos SchaekenEmail author
Open Access
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The article analyses the communicative function and linguistic form of Novgorod birchbark letter no. 497 (N497) within a pragmaphilological framework. By applying a function-to-form mapping and taking into account the graphic representation of the text, I propose a new reading, in which the messenger plays a central role in the communication chain and in which the spoken word continuously interacts with the production and interpretation of the written document. This makes N497 a ‘communicatively heterogeneous’ text, a recently identified category of birchbark letters which deserves special attention in the wider field of historical pragmatics.

Keywords

Communicative Function Linguistic Form Historical Text Initial Message Personal Message 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Прагмафилологический анализ новгородской берестяной грамоты № 497

Аннотация

Статья посвящена прагмафилологическому анализу коммуникативной функции и языковой формы новгородской берестяной грамоты № 497. Исходя из соответствия функции и формы и принимая во внимание графические характеристики грамоты, предлагается новая интерпретация документа с акцентом на своеобразный статус посыльного в коммуникативной цепи и устный фактор в берестяной переписке. Грамота № 497 является ‘коммуникативно неоднородным’ текстом, относясь к недавно выявленной категории берестяных грамот, которая заслуживает серьезного внимания как объект исторической прагматики.

Download to read the full article text

References

  1. Arcixovskij, A. V., & Janin, V. L. (1978). Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste (iz raskopok 1962–1976 gg.). Moskva. Google Scholar
  2. Brinton, L. J. (2001). Historical discourse analysis. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen & H. E. Hamilton (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 138–160). Malden. Google Scholar
  3. Clanchy, M. T. (1993). From memory to written record. England 1066–1307. Oxford. Google Scholar
  4. Constable, G. (1976). Letters and letter-collections (Typologie des sources du Moyen Age accidental, 17). Turnhout. Google Scholar
  5. DND: Zaliznjak, A. A. (2004). Drevnenovgorodskij dialekt. Vtoroe izdanie, pererabotannoe s učetom materiala naxodok 1995–2003 gg. Moskva. Google Scholar
  6. Faccani, R. (1995). Iscrizioni novgorodiane su corteccia di betulla. Udine. Google Scholar
  7. Gippius, A. A. (2004). K pragmatike i kommunikativnoj organizacii berestjanyx gramot. In V. L. Janin, A. A. Zaliznjak & A. A. Gippius, Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste. Iz raskopok 1997–2000 gg. Tom XI (pp. 183–232). Moskva. Google Scholar
  8. Jacobs, A., & Jucker, A. H. (1995). The historical perspective in pragmatics. In A. H. Jucker (Ed.), Historical pragmatics: pragmatic developments in the history of English (pp. 3–33). Amsterdam, Philadelphia. Google Scholar
  9. Jucker, A. H. (2006). Historical pragmatics. In K. Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (pp. 329–331). Oxford. Google Scholar
  10. Taavitsainen, I., & Fitzmaurice, S. (2007). Historical pragmatics: what it is and how to do it. In S. Fitzmaurice & I. Taavitsainen (Eds.), Methods in historical pragmatics (Topics in English Linguistics, 52) (pp. 11–36). Berlin, New York. Google Scholar
  11. Wenzel, H. (1997). Boten und Briefe. Zum Verhältnis körperlicher und nicht-körperlicher Nachrichtenträger. In H. Wenzel (Ed.), Gespräche – Boten – Briefe. Körpergedächtnis und Schriftgedächtnis im Mittelalter (Philologische Studien und Quellen, 143) (pp. 86–105). Berlin. Google Scholar
  12. Zaliznjak, A. A. (1986). Novgorodskie berestjanye gramoty s lingvističeskoj točki zrenija. In V. L. Janin & A. A. Zaliznjak (Eds.), Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste (iz raskopok 1977–1983 gg.). Kommentarii i slovoukazatel’ k berestjanym gramotam (iz raskopok 1951–1983 gg.) (pp. 89–219). Moskva. Google Scholar
  13. Zaliznjak, A. A. (1987). Tekstovaja struktura drevnerusskix pisem na bereste. In T. V. Civ’jan (Ed.), Issledovanija po strukture teksta (pp. 147–182). Moskva. Google Scholar
  14. Zaliznjak, A. A. (2000). Paleografija berestjanyx gramot. In V. L. Janin & A. A. Zaliznjak (Eds.), Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste (iz raskopok 1990–1996 gg.). Paleografija berestjanyx gramot i ix vnestratigrafičeskoe datirovanie. Tom X (pp. 134–274). Moskva. Google Scholar
  15. Zaliznjak, A. A., Toropova, E. V., & Janin, V. L. (2005). Berestjanye gramoty iz raskopok 2004 g. v Novgorode i Staroj Russe. Voprosy jazykoznanija, 3, 24–31. Google Scholar

Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Slavic Languages and CulturesLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands

Personalised recommendations