Common Ground and Politeness in Latin and Greek Philosophical Dialogue

This paper explores the intersection between common ground and politeness in the philosophical dialogues of Plato and Cicero. It focuses on a specific type of assertion in which the speaker talks in place of, or about, the interlocutor, thus running the risk of threatening her negative image by showing presuppositional activity by the speaker about her. We analyze the variety of linguistic strategies documented in both Latin and Greek to reduce the impact of such potential threats in philosophical discourse.