The historical pragmatics of greetings in postclassical Greek

In this contribution, I propose a historical pragmatic approach for the study of speech acts in the history of Postclassical Greek. Therefore I investigate how we can write pragmatic histories of specific speech act patterns based on a study of greetings in Postclassical Greek documentary and literary texts (III BCE – VI CE). First, I provide an overview of the four types of greeting strategies (sc. insubordinate infinitives, imperatives, wish optatives and performatives) and specify their intersubjective orientations (e.g. addressee vs. social circle of addressee). Next, I examine the range of continuity and change in the use of these greeting strategies in Early, Middle and Late Postclassical Greek documentary and literary texts, highlighting in particular the significant differences between greeting patterns in literary texts and documentary papyri.