Talking about lament in Ancient Greek drama. Historical metapragmatics and language ideology in Sophocles’ Ajax

Abstract

Abstract – In this paper, after a theoretical introduction, I will first reconstruct ancient Greek notions of female speech, in particular that of lament. This reconstruction will show that female speech was considered to be genuinely more emotional and less controlled than, and thus inferior to, male speech, and that, accordingly, lament was considered to be a genuinely feminine speech act. I will then discuss the tragedy Ajax by Sophocles (performed probably around 455 BC in Athens) as critically engaging with and challenging these notions of female speech by pointing out their ideological character. This play does indeed present Ajax as a character who very much adheres to the notion of lament being a genuinely feminine, and thus inferior, speech act. However, instead of confirming this notion, Sophocles deconstructs it by juxtaposing Ajax’s metalinguistic utterances with the linguistic behavior of a female character, his slave Tecmessa. In order to show how Sophocles does that, I will make use of the sociolinguistic concept of language ideology. The challenge presented by the Ajax to the traditional notion of lament being genuinely feminine will then be contextualized within both the genre of tragedy and the ancient Greek discourse on language.