Abstract
Formulaicity is a widely discussed concept in the study of historical Greek, primarily due to the influence of the Homeric epics, where it is traditionally understood to arise from oral contexts where formulaic sequences reduce processing effort during lengthy recitations. Besides that, formulaic language also appears in entirely written contexts, such as post-classical Greek administrative and legal documents, where high standardisation meets the need of accuracy and efficiency (see e.g. Nachtergaele 2023; Saradi 2019). The corpus I focus on, Byzantine book epigrams — short, metrical texts found in the margins of Byzantine manuscripts — presents a unique case. These paratexts, embedded in the medieval manuscript tradition, blend literary and documentary functions without any oral performance context, oscillating between practical precision and creative expression. This paper explores a methodological challenge in studying formulaic language within historical Greek corpora, focusing specifically on the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams.
Even recent comprehensive research on Homer’s formulaic language (Bozzone 2024) relies on modern editions of the Homeric epics that attempt to reconstruct an ‘archetype’ based on medieval manuscript ‘witnesses’. In contrast, the DBBE diverges from strict adherence to traditional editorial practices by presenting epigrams preserving all original scribal choices (‘Occurrences’) while also offering ‘normalised’ versions (‘Types’) that group similar instances of the originals (Ricceri et al. 2023). This raises questions: To what extent can we rely on edited texts to analyse formulaicity? How might editorial choices, driven by the desire for a cohesive text, obscure the original variability of formulaic sequences? Does the interaction between formulaicity and editorial practices facilitate research, or does this create the impression of greater fixedness in formulae, potentially skewing certain aspects of the analysis?
This paper explores the potential impact of editorial intervention on formulaicity research, advocating for a more flexible methodology that balances the use of both edited and original sources. Through a case study on supplications for salvation within a subset of the DBBE corpus, I will demonstrate how formulaic expressions function in this hybrid referential-poetic (cf. Jacobson 1960) context, and how editorial practices may shape our understanding of formulaicity. Ultimately, this study seeks to position this material within the broader framework of formulaicity research and to discuss the implications of editorial practices for linguistic research in historical corpora.
Practical information
This lecture will be given at the conference ‘Formulaic Language in Historical Linguistics: data, methods, tools, and theory’, organised by the Academy of Finland project “The learning of Latin in the 8th to 12th century: a linguistic approach to medieval Latin literacies” in collaboration with the Classical Philological Society of Finland.
Date & time: to be confirmed
Location: Tieteiden talo (Kirkkokatu 6, Helsinki, Finland)
More information about this conference and the full programme can be found here.