Discursive formulas of response in Modern Greek

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of discursive formulas of response in Modern Greek. Discursive formulas of response, i.e. idioms which are used in speech as a reaction to what was previously said by the interlocutor and which reproduce some of the phonetic properties of the previous utterance, constitute one of the most language-specific layers of phraseology and pose a difficulty for a correct decoding and translation. The aim of the article is to describe the little-studied material of Modern Greek formulas of response, to determine their types and specific properties and to identify typical communicative situations in which they are used. The study is based on the instances of use of such structures in literary works, internet texts, movies and series in Modern Greek, along with data from dictionaries. Methods of structural, semantic, contextual and comparative analysis are used. The findings of the study provide evidence that in Modern Greek there exist structures corresponding to the definition of discursive formulas of response. Eight types of such structures can be distinguished based on the type of the initiating utterance: reactions to a question; reactions to an address; reactions to an expression of agreement or disagreement; reactions to an expression of opinion or an evaluation; reactions to a factual statement; reactions to a greeting, a farewell or a well-wish; reactions to an expression of gratitude; reactions to a directive. It is shown, however, that the key role in every case is played by the actual lexical make-up of the initiating utterances. From the authors’ point of view, what is particularly interesting for the comparative analysis of discursive formulas of response in different languages is the fact that some Modern Greek formulas of response have the form of a curse or of an ill-wish.