COMUNITÀ DI PRATICHE COME COMUNITÀ DI TESTI NEL MEDITERRANEO MODERNO: LA CORRISPONDENZA DIPLOMATICA TRA LA SERENISSIMA E IL LEVANTE

Abstract

During the Middle Age, the Mediterranean area is characterized by plurilingualism and multigraphism. Writers' and speakers' linguistic repertoires are fluid (Gumperz 2009: 72) and the communicative competence prevails over the linguistic one. However, within this scenario groups of individuals, usually engaged in a joint enterprise, for whom a higher linguistic competence is required. These are the Dragomans and the non-professional translators involved in the translation of the diplomatic correspondence between Venice and the Levant which is realised throughout a shared repertoire. They represent a community of practice which provides the elements for the constitution of another community: the text community (Kopaczyk & Jucker 2013). The present contribution, analysing the linguistic variation traceable in the translations of non-professional translators and Dragomans, highlights the fluid plurilingual and multi-graphic repertoires of these writers. Hence, focusing on linguistic styles, such as opening and closing formulas, recurrent topoi, and textual- discursive features of a sub-corpus of 109 documents, the analysis points out what the practical use of language by Dragomans and non-professional was. It shows the stylistic shared repertoire defined throughout the joint enterprise of diplomatic translations carried out by these individuals who are recognisable as part of a community of practice. The approach is pragmatic: the analysis of the textual and pragmatic macrostructure, as well as of the macro-speech acts (see Van Dijk 1977a), points out how “the text community was able to constitute itself because the community of practice provided the text” (Kopaczyk 2013: 246).