The Slavic Rendition of Greek Speech Reporting Verbs in Chrysostom’s Homilies in the “Codex Suprasliensis”: A Case Study into the Transmission of Diatribal Discourse Organization

Abstract

Chrysostom’s homilies are characterized by a high degree of dialogicality. Multiple voices are not only expressed in lively quotes, but in enacted confrontations with fictitious opponents, such as Biblical characters, Jews or heretics. Chrysostom ‘plays’ both his own part and the opponents’ voices, who are thus not just quoted, but ‘enacted’. In order to demarcate the different voices, linguistic means can be employed; these are often fixed formulae that have occurred in Greek since the Hellenistic period as part of the ‘diatribal’ style. This article identifies a number of Greek diatribal formulae that were taken over into an Old Church Slavonic translation in the “Codex Suprasliensis”. The main focus of the article is on the function of “verba dicendi” in the ‘assignment’ of the different voices in the discourse. The distribution of “verba dicendi” is presented quantitatively, but also analysed qualitatively. The present study allows us to evaluate the extent to which the dialogical features of the diatribe have been preserved in translated Old Church Slavonic texts. This, in turn, serves as a starting point for a further assessment of diatribal influences in other translated and original Slavic texts.