eprintid: 1349884
rev_number: 18
eprint_status: archive
userid: 617
dir: disk0/01/34/98/84
datestamp: 2013-01-17 15:40:49
lastmod: 2015-07-20 22:59:07
status_changed: 2013-01-17 15:40:49
type: thesis
metadata_visibility: show
item_issues_count: 0
creators_name: Luiselli, R.
title: A study of high level Greek in the non-literary papyri from Roman and Byzantine Egypt
ispublished: unpub
divisions: F13
note: Thesis digitised by British Library EThOS
abstract: This thesis discusses for the first time the reception of higher level Greek
in everyday prose in second- to sixth-century Egypt. It offers insights into the
strategies of composition in stylistically ambitious non-literary sources, and investigates
the use of select high-level language varieties. It thus contributes to research on stylistic
registers in post-classical Greek.
In Chapter One, the objectives of thesis are set out, and the methodologies
used in assessing evidence are outlined. Chapter Two explores competence as a
prerequisite for good performance. The linguistic characteristics of grammar as taught
in contemporary schools are analysed in detail to determine the constituents of
language competence of educated individuals. Greek theories of the epistolary style are
discussed at length to define the normative stylistic context within which well-educated
individuals produced their correspondence.
Chapter Three examines the impact of two high-level language varieties,
viz. purism and poetic language. The phenomenon of severe puristic intervention is
explored by analysing two test cases. The interaction between attitudes to extreme
puristic variants and the weighting of non-puristic elements is discussed, and the
existence of widely varied puristic profiles is demonstrated within each genre. Loans
from poetic language are shown to be equally subject to various patterns of usage,
depending upon either external determinants such as context or the writer's particular
psychological motivations.
Focusing on private correspondence, Chapter Four illustrates the main
strategies of stylistic refinement from a selection of contemporary letters. The capacity
of handling the tools of high level Greek is occasionally inferior to the writers'
ambitions, and the selected strategies of refinement differed in conformity with the
rhetorical norms proposed by known epistolary theorists. Compositional choices
disagreeing with these seem to depend partly on rhetorically-motivated acts, partly on
sheer ignorance of the requirements of rhetoric.
date: 1999
vfaculties: VARTS
oa_status: green
thesis_class: doctoral_open
language: eng
thesis_view: UCL_Thesis
dart: DART-Europe
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
full_text_status: public
pages: 304
institution: University of London
department: Greek and Latin
thesis_type: Doctoral
citation:        Luiselli, R.;      (1999)    A study of high level Greek in the non-literary papyri from Roman and Byzantine Egypt.                   Doctoral thesis , University of London.     Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1349884/1/367913.pdf