The evolution of oral speech etiquette in Russia in the 14th-17th centuries

The article aims to study Russian verbal etiquette in the oral communication from the middle of the 16th century to the beginning of the 18th century, that is the period during which socio-economic, historical and cultural challenges accelerated the creating of universal norms in both written and oral speech in the form of a dialogue. Oral etiquette of Moscow Rus has not been studied yet. The sources of the research include texts of bilingual vocabularies, or phrasebooks (German-Russian, French-Russian, and English-Russian). In the article, seven phrasebooks (out of fifteen identified ones) are described. The phrasebooks present the forms of everyday communication - from greetings and the beginning of the verbal contact to the expressing of gratitude and farewell. The material of the research (bilingual texts) has determined the use of the comparative method; the study of etiquette formulae is based on the methods of contextual lexico-semantic analysis; the study of verbal interaction is relied on the theory of communicative tactics. The research was carried out in three stages. At the first stage, based on the speech etiquette theory, the register of possible speech situations was compiled, and the corresponding etiquette formulae were chosen from the texts of the phrasebooks. At the second stage of the research, the development of every etiquette formulae was described for the period of two centuries, as well as the semantics and connotation of the lexico-phraseological units used by the participants in the dialogues. At the final stage of the research, the etiquette formulae were studied in the cognitive aspect against the background of the cultural situation of the century and the mentality of the Russian people. According to the research results, in the process of communication, the oral etiquette formulae are used to establish the verbal contact, to identify the addressee and to appeal to the interlocutor. Hence, Russian speech etiquette has developed formulae of greeting, addressing, request, gratitude, good-wishing, having meals, farewell. The greetings are developed from the verbalized gesture (klan 'ayus', lit. " bowing") to asking for informing (kak bog milujet? [how are you?]) and - later - expressing good wishes (bud' zdorov, lit. "be healthy"). The study has showed that these factors determined the unique richness of the semantics of Russian greeting formulae, which included an appeal, a form of acquaintance, a greeting in the narrow sense, a verbal demonstration of the interest to the interlocutor and blessings for health, goodness and God's mercy. The research has revealed that Russian speech etiquette contains important means of the verbal contact for maintaining a harmonious dialogue. For the first time, the study of the verbal expressions of request has been made, and it has been discovered that in the 17th century, the request form included the word pozhaluy, from which the era ofpozhaluysta [please] began in the Russian language. A distinctive feature of Russian medieval communication is the use of well-being formulae, usually associated with gratitude. According to the research results, the system of Russian etiquette is a dynamic unity of verbal elements, which are actualized and semantically enriched under the influence of socio-cultural changes or stayed only in the history of the language.