Unpacking the norms of Atticism: impersonal modality and the negotiation of overt prestige in Atticist lexicographers

Though the Atticist lexica have often been seen as 'codifying' a prestige variety, there have been very few studies of the specific ways in which Atticist lexica linguistically establish and accord overt prestige, i.e. a higher perceived social status of language use as recognized explicitly within a community. Therefore, we demonstrate that impersonal deontic modal expressions (forms of δεῖ and χρή) are used by the Atticist lexicographers in three ways to record usage norms with overt prestige: (1) report norms with overt prestige (incl. via negative association with social groups), (2) construct norms with overt prestige, and (3) negotiate norms with overt prestige. Our findings attest to a significant diversity within Atticist lexicography with regard to overt prestige: Aelius Dionysius and Pausanias (based on the limited material) seem to almost exclusively report norms, whereas Phrynichus reports, constructs and negotiates norms, and the Antiatticist exclusively (re)negotiates norms.