(Im)Politeness in Vedic Sanskrit

Abstract

This paper focusses on verbal politeness in the direct speech found in Vedic. Certain impersonalisation strategies typical of classical Sanskrit are already attested here, as third-person polite directives or as the expression of the speaker’s wishes, rather than as direct commands, and represent the maximum degree of illocutionary opacity. Passive syntax, which is a prominent device of indirectness in classical Sanskrit, is still marginal in Vedic. In the analysis of terms of address, a hierarchical but highly flexible politeness-orientated allomorphy can be observed. Moreover, the speaker can, in the same interaction, shift from one level of politeness to another to convey changes in his or her self-perception regarding the level of wisdom that he or she has with respect to an interlocutor (factor [±knowing]); rules marked by social stratification are not found to be decisive, contrary to what has been shown to be the case in post-Vedic normative texts.