[PART 2: Introduction]

This introduction chapter of the book deals with eclectic theory of speech margin pragmatics. It summarized the work of over one hundred scholars, working across a considerable range of languages, who have contributed to our understanding of the variety and function of the devices for signalling quoted speech. Individual narrators/ reporters take advantage of the formal permutations within these speech margins. The chapter undertakes original research into speech representation in the ancient Greek novel Callirhoe by Chariton. Classical Greek scholarship, in contrast to New Testament scholarship, has so far expressed only a minor interest in discourse analytical approaches. In the chapter, the investigations have shown that Chariton appears to employ speech margin variation with many of the pragmatic goals discussed by the researchers surveyed in Part One of the monograph, pragmatic goals that often transcend language differences.Keywords: ancient Greek novel; Chariton; classical Greek scholarship; pragmatic goals; speech margin pragmatics