C. Cabrillana* Directives in Latin comedy: Pragmatics, dramatic role and social status DOI 10.1515/joll-2016-0012 Abstract: This paper analyzes directive expressions in Plautus’s Curculio, a comedy with unusual characteristics. The analysis takes into account the social status of those characters who give and receive directive expressions, as well as their gender and the pragmatic situations which the dramatic context affords them. As a means of explaining the findings here, a distinction is drawn between various subtypes of speech acts according to the degree of obligation required in terms of compliance with the orders given. Also, we will attempt to assess the extent to which it is possible to associate a specific type of modality (impressive, declarative, interrogative) with the coding of orders involving a greater or lesser degree of obligation of compliance. The analysis confirms earlier findings on the existence of an interaction in this comedy between pragmatic, dramatic and sociolinguistic aspects in the expression of directives. Keywords: pragmatics, directives, speech act, Latin comedy, Plautus, Curculio 1 Introduction 1.1 Object of study The study of directive acts in various Greek and Latin literary genres has received specific attention in recent years 1 ; also, and more specifically, the linguistic analysis of different characters in Latin comedy has seen increased *Corresponding author: C. Cabrillana, Facultad de Filología, Dpto. Filología Clásica, Francesa e Italiana, Avda. de Castelao, s/n. Campus Norte, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782-Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña, Spain, E-mail: concepcion.cabrillana@usc.es 1 Cf. for example, Risselada (1993, 2004), Núñez (1995), Dickey (2002, 2012a, 2012b), Probert and Dickey (2005), Barrios-Lech (2010 [1999], 2014, 2015, forthcoming), Unceta (2009), Kruschwitz (2013), Cabrillana (forthcoming). I thank P. Barrios-Lech for bringing to my attention material not published at the time of writing this article. Journal of Latin Linguistics 2016; 15(2): 179–214 Brought to you by | Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Authenticated | concepcion.cabrillana@usc.es author's copy Download Date | 12/2/16 9:45 AM