Etiquette Speech Genre of “Compellation” in Opening Sentence of Spiritual Letter (on Material of Texts by Russian Clerical Writers-Monks of 20^th Century)

Abstract

The peculiarities of etiquette speech genre of “compellation” in the Russian spiritual letter are discussed. The relevance of the study is determined by the importance of studying the Church-religious style and written spiritual heritage of Russian Orthodox monasticism, by the interest to Russian speech etiquette and Russian epistolary traditions. The novelty of the study lies in the author’s reference to not previously studied texts of spiritual letters of the Russian Orthodox monks of the 20th century, study of the interaction of language and religion, identification of the specifics of etiquette genres in religious style. The article focuses on the question of how the Hesychast idea of deification is embodied in the language of the genre of “compellation.” Also the attention is paid to the principles of theocentrism and christocentrism, determining the linguistic embodiment of the genre of “compellation.” With the help of illustrations it is shown that the specifics of the genre of “compellation” in the opening sentence of Russian spiritual letter is linked with the Christian worldview of the authors, adherence to ethical Hesychast doctrine. On the basis of involved linguistic material it is concluded that etiquette units which embody the idea of deification ( о Gospode , vo Gospode, vo Khriste, vo Khriste Iisuse, bogolyubivyy, bogolyubiveyshiy, rab Bozhiy ) become a stylistic marker. The analysis of complaints in the letters of clerical writers-monks from the point of view of their functions shows that, in addition to the usual functions of compellations, the texts of this genre realize the function of spiritual rapprochement of the author and the addressee.

Keywords

• духовное письмо
• зачин
• речевой этикет
• обращение
• этикетный речевой жанр
• исихазм
• обожение
• теоцентризм
• христоцентризм