Directives in Latin comedy: Pragmatics, dramatic role and social status

Abstract This paper analyzes directive expressions in Plautus’s Curculio, a comedy with unusual characteristics. The analysis takes into account the social status of those characters who give and receive directive expressions, as well as their gender and the pragmatic situations which the dramatic context affords them. As a means of explaining the findings here, a distinction is drawn between various subtypes of speech acts according to the degree of obligation required in terms of compliance with the orders given. Also, we will attempt to assess the extent to which it is possible to associate a specific type of modality (impressive, declarative, interrogative) with the coding of orders involving a greater or lesser degree of obligation of compliance. The analysis confirms earlier findings on the existence of an interaction in this comedy between pragmatic, dramatic and sociolinguistic aspects in the expression of directives.