Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Historical Pragmatics
Vol. 25:3 (2024) ► pp.450–466

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Exploring diachronic variation in discernment politeness in Ancient Egyptian

ORCiD logo with link | University of East Anglia
 | Harvard University
Published online: 29 August 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.21007.alm
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate evidence of diachronic variation in patterns of Discernment Politeness in letters written in the ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom (c. 2300–2200 bce) and Late Ramesside period (c. 1099–1069 bce). We present examples of requests, information acts and honorifics used in these letters, predominantly those letters sent by subordinates to their superiors, to explore how this relationship dynamic is linguistically indexed. Our evidence shows that throughout the Old and New Kingdoms, communicative acts were regulated by behavioural norms dependent on power structures rather than individual volition, with Power being the most dominant social variable. Finally, we argue that Discernment is a key approach for exploring politeness in texts from ancient Egypt, supporting current research on the topic, and that the approach used here for the ancient Egyptian material has wider applicability for diachronic linguistic analyses of remote civilisations which are highly hierarchical.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discernment Politeness: A theoretical overview
  • 3.Diachronic variation in discernment politeness
    • 3.1Request acts
    • 3.2Information acts
    • 3.3Honorifics
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (44)
References
Abuarrah, Sufyan, Katja Lochtman and Madeline Lutjerhams. 2013. “Cross Cultural Pragmatics Requests’ Use of Strategy and Level of Directness in Palestinian Arabic and British English”. An-Najah University Journal for Research (Humanities) 27 (5): 1109–1144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allen, James P. 2014. Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. (Third edition, revised and reorganised.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Almansa-Villatoro, M. Victoria. 2020. “Nepotism and Social Solidarity in Old Kingdom Correspondence”. Lingua Aegyptia 281: 1–25. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baer, Klaus. 1966. “A Deed of Endowment in a Letter of the Time of Ppjj I?”. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 93 (1–2): 1–9. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. 1987. “Indirectness and Politeness in Requests: Same or Different?” Journal of Pragmatics 11 (2): 131–146. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Roger and Albert Gilman. 1960. “The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity”. In Thomas A. Sebeok (ed.), Style in Language, 253–276. Cambridge: Literary Licensing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope and Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Černý, Jaroslav. 1939. Late Ramesside Letters. Brussels: Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Edel, Elmar. 1992. “Unpublizierte althieratische Elephantine-Papyri aus Strassburg” (‘Unpublished Old Hieratic Elephantine Papyri from Strasbourg’). In Ingrid Gamer-Wallert and Wolfgang Helck (eds), Gegengabe: Festschrift für Emma Brunner-Traut (‘Countergift: Festschrift for Emma Brunner-Traut’), 73–81. Tübingen: Attempto.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eichler, Eckhard. 1991. “Untersuchungen zu den Königsbriefen des Alten Reiches” (“Investigations into the Royal Letters of the Old Kingdom”). Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 181: 141–171.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, Susan. 1976. “Is Sybil there? The Structure of Some American English Directives”. Language in Society 5 (1): 25–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischer-Elfert, Hans-Wener. 2018. “Brief einer Tochter an ihren Vater, Pap. ELE P. 130, Zeit Pepi I” (‘A Letter from a daughter to her father, Papyrus ELE P. 130, from the time of Pepi I’). In Peter Kopp (ed.), Elephantine XXIV: Funde und Befunde aus der Umgebung des Satettempels. Grabungen 2006–2009 (‘Elephantine XXIV: Finds and Findings from the Area around the Satet Temple. Excavations 2006–2009’), 237–240. Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goedicke, Hans. 1988. “Papyrus Boulaq 8 Reconsidered”. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 115 (1): 136–146. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grainger, Karen and Sara Mills. 2016. Directness and Indirectness Across Cultures. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gunn, Battiscombe. 1925. “A Sixth Dynasty Letter from Saqqara”. Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 251: 242–255.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, Beverly, Sachiko Ide, Ikuta Shoko, Akiko Kawasaki and Tsunao Ogino. 1986. “Universals of Linguistic Politeness: Quantitative Evidence from Japanese and American English”. Journal of Pragmatics 10 (3): 347–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ide, Sachiko. 1989. “Formal Forms and Discernment: Two Neglected Aspects of Linguistic Politeness”. Multilingua 8 (2/3): 223–248. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. “On the Notion of “wakimae”: Toward an Integrated Framework of Linguistic Politeness”. In Michiko Takeuchi (ed.), Kotoba no mozaiku: Collection of Papers in Honor of Professor Natsuko Okuda, 298–305. Mejiro Linguistic Society: Tokyo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kádár, Dániel. 2007. “On Historical Chinese Apology and its Strategic Application”. Journal of Politeness Research 3 (1): 125–150. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kádár, Daniel and Sara Mills. 2013. ‘Rethinking Discernment’, Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behavior, Culture 9 (2): 133–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kádár, Daniel and Annick Paternoster. 2015. “Historicity in Metapragmatics: A Study on ‘Discernment’ in Italian Metadiscourse”. Pragmatics 25 (3): 369–391.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Loprieno, Antonio. 1995. Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matsumoto, Yoshiko. 1988. “Reexamination of the Universality of Face: Politeness Phenomena in Japanese”. Journal of Pragmatics 12 (4): 403–426. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1989. “Politeness and Conversational Universals: Observations from Japanese”. Multilingua 8 (2–3): 207–221. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. “Linguistic Politeness and Cultural Style: Observations”. In P. M. Clancy (ed.), Japanese and Korean Linguistics, 55–67. (Volume 21.) Stanford, California: Stanford University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogiermann, Eva. 2009. “Politeness and In-directness Across Cultures: A Comparison of English, German, Polish and Russian Requests”. Journal of Politeness Research 5 (2): 189–216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Direct Off-Record Requests? – ‘Hinting’ in Family Interactions”. Journal of Pragmatics 86 (1): 31–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pantalacci, Laure. 1998. “La documentation épistolaire du palais des gouverneurs à Balat-’Ayn Asīl” (“Epistolary Documentation from the Palace of the Governors at Balat-’Ayn Asīl”). Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 981: 303–315.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Balat, A Frontier Town and its Archive”. In Juan Carlos Moreno García (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Administration, 197–214. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pizziconi, Barbara. 2003. “Re-Examining Politeness, Face and the Japanese Language”. Journal of Pragmatics 35 (10–11): 1471–1506. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quibell, J. E. 1909. Excavations at Saqqara (1907–1908). Le Caire: Institut français d’archéologie orientale.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ridealgh, Kim. 2013. “‘Yes Sir!’ An Analysis of the Superior/Subordinate Relationship in the Late Ramesside Letters”. Lingua Aegyptia: Journal of Egyptian Language Studies 211: 181–206.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “The Cohesive Nature of the Late Ramesside Letters”. Journal of Ancient Civilizations 291: 36–49.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “Polite Like an Egyptian? Case Studies of Politeness in the Late Ramesside Letters”. Journal of Politeness Research 12 (2): 245–266. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ridealgh, Kim and Andreas Jucker. 2019. “Late Egyptian, Old English and the Re-Evaluation of Discernment Politeness in Remote Cultures”. Journal of Pragmatics 144 (6): 56–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ridealgh, Kim and Luis Unceta Gómez. 2020. “Potestas and the Language of Power: Conceptualising an Approach to Power and Discernment Politeness in Ancient Languages”. Journal of Pragmatics 170 (16): 231–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roccati, Alessandro. 1968. “Una lettera inedita dell’ Antico Regno” (“An Unpublished Letter from the Old Kingdom”). Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 541: 14–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sethe, Kurt. 1933. Urkunden des Alten Reichs (‘Old Kingdom Records’), Urkunden des Ägyptischen Altertums I. J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung: Leipzig.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shisha-Halevy, Ariel. 1995. “Some Reflections on the Egyptian Conjunctive”. In Cäcilia Fluck, Lucia Langener, Siegfried Richter, Sofia Schaten and Gregor Wurst (eds), Divitiae Aegypti: Koptologische und verwandte Studien zu Ehren von Martin Krause (‘Divitiae Aegypti: Coptological and Related Studies in Honor of Martin Krause’), 300–314. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smither, Paul C. 1942. “An Old Kingdom Letter Concerning the Crimes of Count Sabni”. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 281: 16–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sweeney, Deborah. 2001. Correspondence and Dialogue: Pragmatic Factors in Late Ramesside Letter Writing. (Ägyptologische Abhandlungen, Volume 49.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz VerlagGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsuzuki, Masako, Kazuhiro Takahashi, Cynthia Patshek and Qin Zhang. 2005. “Selection of Linguistic Forms for Requests and Offers: Comparison Between English and Chinese”. In Robin T. Lakoff and Sachiko Ide (eds), Broadening the Horizon of Linguistic Politeness, 283–296. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wente, Edward Frank. 1967. Late Ramesside Letters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1990. Letters from Ancient Egypt. Atlanta: Scholars Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue