LEXICAL VARIATION IN THE SLAVONIC THEKARA TEXTS: SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC FACTORS IN MEDIEVAL TRANSLATION PRAXIS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Tania D. Ivanova-Sullivan, MA * * * * * The Ohio State University 2005 Dissertation Committee: Approved by: Dr. Daniel E. Collins, Adviser Dr. Predrag Matejic ____________________________________ Dr. David J. Birnbaum Adviser Graduate Program in Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures Copyright by Tania D. Ivanova-Sullivan 2005 ABSTRACT The current research focuses on semantic and pragmatic factors involved in the lexical variation in medieval translations. It is the first cross-linguistic and cross-cultural study of the different paths of semantic signification taken by the medieval Slavic translators of a Byzantine text. Therefore, it fills a gap in the field of Slavonic translation studies where semantic and pragmatic analysis of the factors of lexical variation have previously not been primary objects of study. The data for the investigation were drawn from a Slavonic translation, probably dating to the 14th-century, of an 11th-century Greek text entitled ‘Triadic Hymn with Midnight Prayer from the Dogmatics of the Holy Dionysius the Areopagite. Compilation and Composition of the Monk Thekara.’ This text, which has not been studied previously, comprises Lenten hymns and prayers for daily monastic use, based on the theology of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. I examine two Slavonic versions – one attested in ten manuscripts held in Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos, the Czech National Museum in Prague, and the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade; and the other in a single codex from the Holy Trinity Monastery near Pljevlja, Montenegro. In the dissertation I approach the lexical variation in the Slavonic translation of the Thekara inductively, as a manifestation of the heterogenous nature of the semantic ii organization of the lexicon. Thus, I use approaches from different theoretical frameworks to interpret the data – componential analysis, lexical fields, frame-semantics, Gricean inferential analysis, and the cognitive linguistic approach to imagery. This integrative methodology is partly based on the non-unified model of lexical semantics proposed by P. Violi. The analysis of the data in these terms provides a model of best practices for approaching lexical semantics in medieval translations. The study suggests that the lexical variation in the Slavonic translation of the Thekara in its greater part is based on foregrounding mechanisms, i.e., the bringing into focus of specific semantic features, metaphorical associations and socio-cultural concepts. The study proposes that such foregrounding cannot be analyzed solely on the referential level of semantics but must include reference to the perceptual and axiological (evaluative) dimensions of meaning. iii Dedicated to my parents iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser, Daniel E. Collins (Chair, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University), for his constant intellectual support, encouragement, and enthusiasm, all of which made this dissertation possible. Since my entry into graduate program of the OSU Slavic Department, Dr. Collins has been a steadfast mentor and colleague. I thank the distinguished members of my dissertation committee, Predrag Matejic (Curator, Hilandar Research Library, and Director, Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies at Ohio State) and David J. Birnbaum (Chair, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh) for their patience and their insightful suggestions, and Craige Roberts (OSU Department of Linguistics), who served as my outside reader and offered many helpful comments. Special thanks to David J. Birnbaum for stepping in at the last minute to serve on my committee when Brian D. Joseph (OSU Linguistics) was unable to attend the scheduled defense. I am especially grateful to Professor Joseph for all of his assistance and guidance he served as a committee member in all but name. I would also like to thank Roland Marti (Professor, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany) for suggesting Thekara as a worthy subject for a dissertation. v I would like to thank the Monks of Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos for providing the scholarly community access to the manuscripts in their keeping through the microfilm copies of their treasures in the Hilandar Research Library of The Ohio State University. I also thank the Hilandar Research Library and the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies at Ohio State and especially M.A. Johnson, Helene Senecal, and Nataša Kaurin-Karača for their support – scholarly, emotional and financial – during my years in Columbus. M.A. Johnson was particularly helpful in proofreading parts of my dissertation and assisting me in formatting the illustrations and accompanying hyperlinks. I would also like to thank The Ohio State University for its generous financial assistance that enabled me to travel to Russia and Greece in order to collect Slavic and Greek primary sources. Thanks also to the repositories of the Serbian Orthodox Church Museum in Belgrade, the Russian National Library in Moscow, the Russian State Library in Saint Petersburg, the Patriarchal Library in Thessaloniki, and the Prague National Museum for providing me microfilm copies of the various manuscripts of the Thekara. I am grateful to the Department of Bulgarian Philology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and the Department of Medieval Studies at Central European University in Budapest for the excellent scholarly foundation that helped shape my academic career. I would specifically like to acknowledge the Bulgarian scholars: Anisava Miltenova, Elena Kotseva, Ana-Maria Totomanova, Maria Jovčeva, Lora Taseva, Mariana Cibranska, Margaret Dimitrova, and Iskra Xristova. My heartfelt appreciation and love to my family in Bulgaria, my mother Mariana, my father Dončo, and my sister Desi, for their constant and unwavering support – especially of my academic aspirations. vi To my American family, in particular my in-laws, Jean and John Sullivan, I wish to express my deepest gratitude for their moral support. My wonderful husband Neal Sullivan has been extraordinarily patient, kind and supportive during the final years of my dissertation work and his loving presence made my work much easier. vii VITA February 6, 1972…………………… Born, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria 1997…………………………………M.A. Bulgarian Philology, Sofia University 1999………………………………....M.A. Medieval Studies, Central European University, Hungary 1999 – present……………………… Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Tania D. Ivanova, “Interpreting Medieval Literacy: Learning and Education in Slavia Orthodoxa (Bulgaria) and Byzantium in the 9th-12th centuries.” In Medieval Education, ed. by Ronald Begley and Joseph Koterski, 50-68. (Fordham Series in Medieval Studies.) New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. Tania D. Ivanova, “Псевдо-Дионисий Ареопагит в два превода от 14 век: понятията за добро, благо и любов в превода на Исай Серски и в превода на “Тикара” (‘Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in two 14th-century translations: the concepts of Good, Beautiful and Love in the translation of Isaj of Ser and “Thekara”’). In Übersetzungen des 14.Jahrhunderts im Balkanraum, ed. by L. Taseva, M. Jovčeva, C. Voss, and T. Pentkovskaja, 315-327. Sofia: Verlag Gorex Press, 2004. 3. Tania D. Ivanova, “The Metamorphoses of the Affix –OV in Bulgarian.” In Balkan and Slavic Linguistics: In Honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures. The Ohio State Working Papers in Slavic Studies, vol. Ed. by Daniel E. Collins and Andrea D. Sims. Columbus, Ohio: Department of East European Languages and Literatures, 2003. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Slavic Linguistics viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………ii Dedication……………………………………………………………..………………….iv Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………..…….v Vita……………………………………………………………………………………...viii List of Figures………………………………………………………………………...….xi Chapters: 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………..........………1 1.1. Scope and objectives of this study....................................................................1 1.2. The Greek text of the Thekara and its Slavonic translation: sources and distribution...............................................................................................................4 1.3. Previous research on Slavic medieval translations and lexical variation.......14 1.4. Research methods...........................................................................................21 1.5. Research procedures and data collection........................................................25 2. Lexical semantics in translation studies and the case of lexical variation.............29 2.1. Defining meaning in translation......................................................................29 2.2. Biblical semantics and translation..................................................................37 2.3. Non-unified model of lexical semantics.........................................................43 2.4. Interpreting lexical variation: the approach of this study...............................51 3. Slavonic lexical responses to variation in the Greek manuscript tradition...........60