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Greeting and farewell expressions 105
2 oral and written communication: distant and
fictitious dialogues in letters and inscriptions
One of the chief interests of greeting formulae for the student of colloquial
language is the interaction between oral and written speech in their representation.
One aspect of this are the different verbs used to specify an act of
salutation in oral utterances (e.g. salutem dicere, nuntiare) and those made
in writing (e.g. salutem scribere). Obviously the importance of greeting
expressions in both oral and written communication mean that they can
be found in a variety of contexts, determined both by the rules of literary
genres and by the social rules that control personal interactions. In written
texts that do not attempt to imitate spoken dialogue, the greeting expressions
are usually significantly different from those the same interlocutors
would employ in oral conversation.
Cicero calls letters amicorum conloquia absentium ‘a conversation with
absent friends’ and states that epistulas cotidianis verbis texere solemus ‘we
are accustomed to weave letters out of everyday language’. 2 Nevertheless
Cicero’s letters, like those of other Romans, used greeting and farewell formulae
very different from those probably in use in oral conversation. There
was an ancient rhetorical convention that a letter should be more elaborate
than oral speech (see Cugusi 1983: 28 ff.), but when it comes to greeting
formulae variation in letters is minimal. Of course, for published letters
such as those of Cicero our understanding of this subject is complicated by
the difficulty of determining which elements belong to the original drafting
of the letter and which, if any, were added at the time of publication. Letters
have numerous colloquial features but are nevertheless characterised
by fixed and distinctive epistolary conventions (e.g. the ‘dear’ used at the
start of letters in English) that clearly separate them from actual dialogue
(cf., for Cicero, Garcea 2002, 2005). Letters may well convey actual dialogue,
but that dialogue is not expressed precisely as it would have been
had it taken place face to face.
On the other hand dramatic texts do not convey actual dialogue at all,
rather fictional dialogue. The difference matters, because what is said in
a play may have to do with concerns that would be irrelevant in real dialogue,
such as the needs of the audience. In the case of greetings in Plautus
and other dramatic texts departures from the conventions of spontaneous
conversation may be caused by the practical necessities of conveying
2 Cic. Phil. 2.7.17, Fam. 9.21.1 (quoted by Thomas, this volume p. 255).