Original scientific paper
Speech Acts and Formal and Informal Communication in Croatian Renaissance Epistles
Amir Kapetanović
orcid.org/0000-0002-8013-9330
; Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje, Zagreb
Abstract
In Croatian Renaissance epistles there are examples of most of the important speech acts, which shows that the Croatian language of the Shtokavian or Chakavian type of the prestandard period (the 16th century) was developed well enough for their expression. Since in Renaissance epistles certain conventions in communication can be recognised, it can be stated that on the whole the writers adhered to custom in the expression of certain speech acts irrespective of the mi-lieu to which they belonged on the eastern Adriatic coast. Variations of and departures from the conventions show that there was once a stylistic grading of communication (formal and informal) in Croatian, depending on the closeness, age and class of the sender and recipient of the epistle, on the situation of the communication, the intentions of the speaker and so on. But most of the epistles are writ-ten with a middling, consultative style (used in a public context and in a circle of friends and acquaintances), in a range from formal to relaxed communication. Only seldom in the body of Croatian epistles are there examples of the informal style, as in two epistles of Dimitrović (the use of macaronic speech, of localisms and vulgarisms).
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
35387
URI
Publication date:
22.4.2009.
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