Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/y6zolb63jm
Adriobyzantine terms and formulas in early medieval social discourse
Ivan Basić
orcid.org/0000-0003-4781-1292
Abstract
In the focus of this article is the analysis of lexical "Adrio-Byzantinisms". The Plea of Rižana (804), the texts of the patriarchs of Grado, Fortunatus II and Venerius (820s), along with the manuscripts of the Frankish theologian Gottschalk of Orbais (846-848) contain a discourse in which, in abstract terms, the Byzantine emperor is addressed as Empire (imperium) and Lordship (dominatio). These characteristics of the spoken discourse concern the inhabitants of Byzantine Dalmatia, Venice with adjacent coastal zone (Venetia maritima), as well as pre-Frankish Istria. Identical notions in Greek hyperformal phraseology of the Byzantine court ceremonial have been established, as well as a "majestic discourse" of that very provenance, originating from official
texts and speaking practices acquired at court, translated into Latin in Adriatic milieus. These lexical loans (calco semantico) can be conceptualised as Adrio-Byzantinisms: the phenomena of Byzantine origin adapted and modified in the Adriatic context and Latin language medium.
Mutual structural similarity of these texts on the one hand, along with their precise discursive congruity with the products of Byzantine linguistic and written high culture on the other, call for their investigation as a mirror of the knowledge and perceptions of their creators, with an aim to ascertain the identity and nature of the fund of "social knowledge" these perceptions correspond with.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
311731
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2023.
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