Implementation of Cohesion in Regional Documents of the Middle and the End of the 18th Century

Abstract

The results of a comparative analysis of the implementation of cohesion in the documents of the same genre are presented. The research material are the military charters of the middle and the end of the 18th century, kept in the Fund “Mikhaylovsk stanitsa ataman” of State Archive of Volgograd Region. It is established that the texts of different time slices have similar amounts of coupling means: repetition, pronouns, conjunctions. It is revealed that the texts of the mid-18th century are characterized by the repetition of certain phrases and larger chunks of text dealing with the evaluation of described event and the rationale of made decisions by appeal to the unwavering authority of the sovereign. It is argued that the absence of such regulating repetitions in the texts of the late 18th century testifies to the integration of the Oblast of the Don Cossack Host in the legal space of the Russian state, and at the level of the text reflects the effects of trends toward standardization and simplicity of the business discourse. The texts of the end of the century are characterized by the use of quantifier pronouns with semantics of inclusiveness that not only serves to provide inline links, but also shows the universal validity of judgments for execution. It is proved that the dynamics in the representation of the means of cohesion is determined by reasons connected with change of system of management of the Host and the development of official-business style.