Towards a Contrastive Pragmatics of Dyadic Syntax in Greek and Latin Comedy

Abstract

Turns intertwine in various ways as speakers make their utterances depend on each other through shared linguistic common ground. This paper offers a first contrastive pragmatic exploration of the understudied phenomenon of dyadic syntax , clauses marked as subordinate that are syntactically independent but pragmatically dependent on preceding speech acts by the addressee or speaker. Based on a contrastive study of Greek and Latin comedy, it is argued that dyadic syntax is expressed through dependency expressions of conditionality, hypothetical comparison, causality, and especially of coordination and consequence; dyadic syntax serves at least three pragmatic roles in both languages, (i) cooperation, (ii) delay, and (iii) discursive elaboration. Dyadic syntax in Greek and Latin comedy resembles its use in other languages and reflects more universal patterns of turn taking structure. Also, dyadic syntax is used outside of conversational texts, for example in monologues to create diaphony and counter embedded voices.