Everyday Communication in Antiquity: Frames and Framings
open access | peer reviewed
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a cura di
- Klaas Bentein - Universiteit Gent, België - email
Abstract
This volume explores everyday communication practices in Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt, with a particular focus on Greek papyri and related sources. It examines how language, layout, and materiality – manifesting overtly or subtly, at global and local levels – shaped the production and interpretation of texts. Grounded in a ‘frame-based’ approach, the chapters draw on sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and multimodality to reveal how ancient writers and readers constructed meaning and articulated identities across genres, languages, and cultural contexts.
Keywords Historical sociolinguistics • Norms and usage • Framing • Continuative clauses • Administrative papyri • Text segmentation • Semiotic grammar • Discoursal ‘add-on’ • High-register Greek • Afterthought • Ancient Greek • Layout • Papyrology • Everyday communication • Arabic • Indexical order • Greek • Intersubjectivity • Materiality • Papyri • Women • Language of papyri • Documentary roll • Multimodality • Cross-cultural pragmatics • Bilingualism • Register • Discourse analysis • Speech acts • Communication • Register shibboleths • Post-classical Greek • Postscript • Language • Writing technology • Height • Late antiquity • Epistolography • Petitions • Social meaning • Greek letters • Politeness • Multilingualism • Performatives • Apollonios strategos archive • Complementation • Documentary papyri • Stance • Atticism • Wishes • Infinitive • Relativisation
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-886-6 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-886-6 | ISBN (PRINT) 978-88-6969-887-3 | Pubblicato 24 Aprile 2025 | Lingua en
Copyright © 2025 Klaas Bentein. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Section 1. Material and Visual Framings
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Medium, Procedures and Conventions
A Framework for Analyzing the Materiality of Documents on Papyrus - 24 Aprile 2025
Section 2. Discursive Framings
- Connecting Intersubjectivity, Politeness and Stance with Wishes in the Post-Classical Greek Papyri
- 24 Aprile 2025
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Spacing Out Speech Acts
Textual Units and Their Visual Organisation in Greek Letters on Papyrus - 24 Aprile 2025
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Frames, Framings and Beyond
Afterthoughts and Other Discoursal ‘Add-Ons’ in Greek Private Letter Writing - 24 Aprile 2025
Section 3. Socio-Cultural Framings
- Seeing the (Smaller and) Bigger Frame: Framing Late Antique Egyptian Writers and Documents Through Bilingual and Biscriptal Choices
- 24 Aprile 2025
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Requests in the Qurra Dossier
A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Approach - 24 Aprile 2025
Section 4. Intratextual Framings