Rhetorik neubabylonischer Privatbriefe

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht formale Eigenheiten spätbabylonischer Privatbriefe aus Mesopotamien aus dem sogenannten „langen 6. Jahrhundert“ v.d.Zw. in Hinblick auf strukturierende und stilistische Elemente, die Aufschluss zu Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten für den angemessenen Umgang miteinander, Höflichkeit und Überzeugungs- beziehungsweise Überredungsstrategien geben. Außerdem wird versucht, verschiedene sprachliche Elemente in Bezug auf Betonung und Zweck des Schreibens einzuordnen. Hierzu werden zunächst die Briefeinleitung und der Briefkörper grundlegend untersucht, d.h. Adress-, Gruß- und Segensformeln sowie die unterschiedlichen Formen der Anrede, als Titel und im Verlauf des Briefes, analysiert. Dabei dient die Hypothese, dass sprachliche Direktheit und Indirektheit Aufschluss zu Höflichkeit und damit zum Verhältnis der beteiligten Personen zueinander geben können, als Basis. Daneben werden spezifische Briefteile untersucht sowie die verschiedenen Optionen, diese einzuleiten, um funktionsspezifische Aussagen zu verschiedenen Struktur- und Stilmitteln treffen zu können. Dabei zeigt sich ein vorgeprägter Verhaltenskodex von unterschiedlich zueinander stehenden Personen, der jedoch der privaten Natur des Verhältnisses und der dementsprechenden Vielfältigkeit der Beziehungen unterliegt und je nach persönlicher Beziehung modifiziert werden kann. Einzelnen strukturierenden und gestaltenden Elementen werden spezifische Funktionen zugewiesen, was auf Nuancen in Privatbriefen hindeutet, die rein grammatikalisch nicht festgestellt werden können, beispielsweise die Verbindung der direkten Rede mit Unwahrheiten und problemverursachenden Aussagen. Zusätzlich werden Frauenbriefe einzeln behandelt, um eventuelle weibliche und männliche Ausdrucksformen zu unterscheiden, wiederum unter den oben genannten Gesichtspunkten. Dabei zeigen sich keine Unterschiede in der Struktur, jedoch in der Gestaltung der Texte, beispielsweise bei genannten Gottheiten. Unklarheit besteht weiterhin bei den verwendeten Anredenomina für Frauen. Die theoretischen Befunde werden im letzten Kapitel mit prosopographischen Daten verbunden und somit auf bekannte Personen angewendet. Hierbei werden sowohl die vorläufigen Ergebnisse als auch die Verhältnisse der Involvierten zueinander näher betrachtet. Privatbriefe dienen auf diese Weise als Hilfe, die Natur bereits bekannter Verhältnisse zwischen Personen weiter zu verfeinern, können jedoch aufgrund der systematischen Gestaltung auch die prosopographische Zuordnung verschiedener Personennamen erleichtern.This thesis tries to identify formal criteria for private letters from the so-called “long sixth century” BC. concerning appropriateness, politeness, persuasion, emphasis, and style of the Akkadian used. To this end, various features are examined, starting from address and greeting formulae to particular stylistic features like particles, questions etc. In the course of this study, forms of address in connection with titles of the involved parties are under investigation, with the hypothesis of directness and indirectness of speech as a means to identify various patterns and combinations that in turn can help defining the relationship between sender and addressee. Moreover, parts of letters and different ways of introducing them are analysed, expecially considering their possible functions. Questions of style are intrinsically tied to status and nature of the relationship of the involved people and are also inseparable from formal criteria to express certain notions or to achive certain goals. A genderspecific approach is used to explore the possibilities of different forms of female and male expression. This theoretical framework is then combined with prosopographic data to link its findings to actual persons whose relationships are known to modern researchers. This can not only be used to verify the hypothetical findings but also to specify certain relationships whose basic nature is already identified but whose detailed personal components remain unclear

A new instrument to describe indicators of well-being in old-old patients with severe dementia – The Vienna List

BACKGROUND: In patients with very severe dementia self-rating of quality of life usually is not possible and appropriate instruments for proxy-ratings are not available. The aim of this project is to develop an instrument of clinical proxy-ratings for this population. METHODS: Using electronic instruments, physicians and nurses recorded patient behaviour and changes of behaviour over a period of one year. Based on these data a list of 65 items was generated and subsequently allocated to 14 categories. This list was tested in 217 patients (61–105 yrs) with dementia diagnosed according to ICD-10 by both physicians and nurses. The severity of dementia was assessed by means of the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) and the Brief Cognitive Rating Scale (BCRS). The Spitzer-Index (proxy-rating) was used as a global quality of life measure. Activity of daily living was rated using the Barthel Index. RESULTS: A factor analysis of the original 65 items revealed 5 factors (communication, negative affect, bodily contact, aggression, and mobility). By stepwise removing items we obtained satisfactory internal consistencies of the factors both for nurses' and physicians' ratings. The factors were generally unrelated. The validity of the instrument was proven by correlations of the factors communication and mobility with the Brief Cognitive Rating Scale (BCRS) and the Barthel-Index. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Vienna List as a proxy rating measurement of quality of life in patients with severe dementia. The psychometric properties of the scale have to be proved in further studies

The contribution of insects to global forest deadwood decomposition

The amount of carbon stored in deadwood is equivalent to about 8 per cent of the global forest carbon stocks. The decomposition of deadwood is largely governed by climate with decomposer groups—such as microorganisms and insects—contributing to variations in the decomposition rates. At the global scale, the contribution of insects to the decomposition of deadwood and carbon release remains poorly understood. Here we present a field experiment of wood decomposition across 55 forest sites and 6 continents. We find that the deadwood decomposition rates increase with temperature, and the strongest temperature effect is found at high precipitation levels. Precipitation affects the decomposition rates negatively at low temperatures and positively at high temperatures. As a net effect—including the direct consumption by insects and indirect effects through interactions with microorganisms—insects accelerate the decomposition in tropical forests (3.9% median mass loss per year). In temperate and boreal forests, we find weak positive and negative effects with a median mass loss of 0.9 per cent and −0.1 per cent per year, respectively. Furthermore, we apply the experimentally derived decomposition function to a global map of deadwood carbon synthesized from empirical and remote-sensing data, obtaining an estimate of 10.9 ± 3.2 petagram of carbon per year released from deadwood globally, with 93 per cent originating from tropical forests. Globally, the net effect of insects may account for 29 per cent of the carbon flux from deadwood, which suggests a functional importance of insects in the decomposition of deadwood and the carbon cycle

Some Remarks on Language Usage in Late Babylonian Letters

This paper deals with language usage in private and institutional letters from the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods. It analyses the usage of terms of address, greeting formulae and direct and indirect phrasing, drawing on notions of politeness developed by Brown and Levinson. Of particular interest are questions of usage within a temple hierarchy and its implications for professional relationships. For private letters, the case for the appellation of ‘lord’ for women as previously claimed by the author is further substantiated

Some Remarks on Language Usage in Late Babylonian Letters

This paper deals with language usage in private and institutional letters from the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods. It analyses the usage of terms of address, greeting formulae and direct and indirect phrasing, drawing on notions of politeness developed by Brown and Levinson. Of particular interest are questions of usage within a temple hierarchy and its implications for professional relationships. For private letters, the case for the appellation of ‘lord’ for women as previously claimed by the author is further substantiated.© 2017 Martina Schmid