The Pragmatics of Speech Acts in the Colloquia scholica

This paper offers a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the different types of speech acts in five colloquia from the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana. All the acts occurring in the texts are illustrated by means of selected examples, their relative frequency and distribution. The Colloquia provide the vocabulary and basic constructions to be used in everyday life, without closely reproducing spoken events. What we find are patterns of ordinary, short communicative exchanges of the question-answer type or lists of orders. Features of oral interaction such as interruptions, interjections and hesitation phenomena never characterise these dialogic passages, and the presence of discourse and pragmatic markers is very marginal. Finally, the quantitative survey on the frequency of the different Speech Acts in the Colloquia points to a cultural-dependent account. What emerges from the data is the crucial importance of the pragmatic competence of learning how to give orders: this suggests a highly selected, educated audience made up of people of high social rank.