Sadova, T. S., Rudnev, D. V. FROM THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN PETITIONING GENRES: THE LINGUISTIC ASPECT // Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2020. Vol. 42. No 5. P. 8–14. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2020.493


Linguistics

FROM THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN PETITIONING GENRES: THE LINGUISTIC ASPECT

Sadova
T. S. 		Saint Petersburg State University
Rudnev
D. V. 		Saint Petersburg State University
Keywords:
official style history
pleading genres
18th century Russian language
state communication
petition
application
state metapho		 Summary: The article investigates the evolution of the petitioning document genre in the aspect of the development of linguistic forms of expression of the petition in the history of Russian official communication. In the system of ancient Russian documentary genres, the petition occupies a special place: this type of document fully reflects a family metaphor of a pre-Petrine state. Therefore, the prevailing speech formulas serving the figure of supplicant are formulas of resentment and an almost familiar censure of the supreme authorities that he (the supplicant) lives poorly, that “he became poor, has a torn clothes” and so on. With the change of the type of state at the time of Peter I, the petition becomes less emotional,the formulas of resentment and censure are replaced by the formulas of “sovereign humiliation” of the applicant figure, a large number of terms appear for indicating of addressee’s rank, status and official regalia. The petition remains as a genre, but it loses its intimate character of appeal: all letters to the sovereign are now examined by his office, therefore a more strict structure of this document is introduced, and the first petition forms are approved. A further regulation of its structure leads to a change in the name of this genre itself: first the application (XIX century), and then the appeal and the statement (XX century). A clear document structure, a limited set of speech formulas, almost complete elimination of elements of live speech – all these and other linguistic features of the petitioning document confirm the estrangement of the state from the person: the state does not present itself as a family, but as a machine where every person is only a screw in a complex mechanism.



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