ბოდიშის გამომხატველი გამოთქმები ქართულ ენაში

Abstract

Beginning from the second half of the 20th century, one of the branches of lingvo-pragmatics, the speech act theory began to attract special attention which was associated with the names of J. L. Austin and J. R. Searle. The scientific results of the mentioned logical-philosophical stream turned out to be valuable for linguistics. The speech acts basic groups (identified by Searle, 1969) contain expressives (or otherwise behabitives, Austin, 1975). These groups contain also: thanking, apologising, welcoming, greetings, condolence, and congratulations. In the speech etiquette of any language, besides the linguistic means of expressing courtesy, the so called phatic communication takes important place as a special form of verbal communication. Its main function is to establish and keep contact between the communicants. This term was first used by an anthropologist B. Malinovsky (1923). The phatic function of language is separated out by R. Jacobson (1975). Apologizing (begging pardon) is one of the units of phatic communication which supports remaining the course of communication going on and regulates the attitudes between the individuals. It is called a conventional or ritual speech act. Like all other units of phatic communication, the linguistic forms of begging pardon are distinguished by their ethno-cultural specifics; as for their forming and remaining in a language through its history, these processes awaken deep interest especially towards specifics of their development alongside with development of a language. The phatic communicative units are intensively explored in the modern foreign linguistics especially considering the colloquial situations and frequently through considerations of comparative analysis based on their contradictional aspect in comparison with other languages (Lange, 1984; Demeter, 2011, etc.). Phatic communication is thoroughly studied in Georgian linguistics, as compared with English, Italian, Spanish, Persian and other languages (Demetradze, 1997; Tsertsvadze, 2007; Mchedlishvili, 2010; Gogoladze, 2019, etc.). Certainly, the means of expressing apologies/ excuses are also discussed in the research works (see: Zekalashvili, 2012). We have discussed the phatic speech act in diachronic and synchronic ways basing on the several data from the Georgian language corpus. Historically, there is no such word as bodiši ‘pardon’, ‘excuse’ acknowledged historically in the Old Georgian texts. The words ‘mi- ṭeveba’ (momiṭevet) ‘pardon me’, ‘I beg your pardon’ and also the word “šendoba” ‘shrift’, ‘pardon’ are used in the old Georgian texts. Sulkhan- Saba Orbeliani explains the word “bodiši” ‘pardon’ in the following way: “this means to ask pardon to a person by your polite word and behavior.” As for the Georgian word “uḳacravad” it is defined as something, which is inappropriate for good people, noble people (Orbeliani, 1991). There is no such word as bodiši “pardon, apologise, excuse” in the poem “Vephistkaosani” (“The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”) and in “Amiran-Darejaniani” (“The story of Amiran, son of Darejan”). The word momiṭeve ‘forgive’, ‘excuse’ is acknowledged only. In the middle period of the language development, ritual formulas of excuse were introduced to Georgian language: bodišs movitxov, bodišs mogaxseneb ‘I ask for your excuse’, ‘I beg your pardon’, bodišs moitxovs, bodišs moixdis ‘he (she) begged pardon’, ‘he brings his excuse’… These phrases can be found in the Medieval Georgian literary texts: “Rusudaniani”, “Baramiani”, “Q’aramaniani”, “Davitiani” (David Guramishvili’s autobiographical poem), “Teimuraziani” (King Archil’s work), also in the translated literature works of those times (“Kilila and Damana”) and others (see: GNC). In the Middle Georgian Texts we have also the words of excuse such as “uḳacravad”, in parallel with the old words such as “šeminde/momiṭeve”. The word of excuse “bodiši” is etymologically associated with the word “bōžishn” (which is phallic − Old Persian − word), meaning ‘apologize’, ‘forgive’ and to the word “bōžish*” from the New Persian language; it was adopted to the Georgian language in the form “bodiš” (Gigineishvili, 2016, p. 56). In Modern Georgian along with the words of pardon the verb form maaṭie/ maaṭiet ‘forgive me’ is also usually used; also, the adverb uḳacravad (which is used when the matter of excuse is not very important) is used; the word “momiṭevet” is sometimes used but it is especially a high-style word only for some special situations to underline courtesy; the special lexical units, the derivatives from the words “bodiši” have been also derived through the times, such as: bodišobs, ebodišeba, moibodišebs (=beg pardon); sabodišo ‘something for which one should say pardon’ and the like, bodišiani ‘polite’. In colloquial speech we meet the form derived from the French “pardon” - “uardono” ‘not polite’; sometimes we meet the colloquial word “beardonni” which entered from the Russian form, meaning – ‘without any pardon, rude’. The reasons which cause excuses in Georgian language, need to study separately. The areal of excuses are large in the official communication register: in political and diplomatic spheres, in church, court, mass media. The units of the informal communication are used by strangers (in the transport, at workplace, we use the words of excuse for being late, or for some not very important cases). There are also the words of excuse in the circles of family members, friends, aquaintances, when acknowledging our faults, sometimes for impolite behaviour or rude words speaking them involuntary or in purpose (we say: “uḳacravad asuxia, bodiši momitxovia”) to express apologizing. The words of begging pardon are used also when something is done involuntary – bodiši, vuxvar, ʒalian vuxvar, gulrpelad vuxvar, ʒalian samuxaroa, ʒalian ganvicdi − ‘I am sincerely sorry’, ‘I worry’, ‘I am really very sorry’; and other expressions which underline that those who beg pardon, really worry about the fact which happened unpurposefully and are ready to improve the situation. National language specifics is especially distinct when comparing the etimology and the situations of usage of the phatic communication units to the same examples existing in the other language situations.