The Techniques of Influencing the Addressee in the Business Letters of Khan Ayuka on “Todo Bichig” (“Clear Letter”) and their Reflection in the Synchronized Russian Translations of the 17th–18th Centuries. Part 1

Introduction. Business letters addressed by the Kalmyk Khan (before 1690, Taisha) Ayuka (1642–1724), written in todo bichig (“clear letter”), are polythematic multifunctional texts that implement, among other things, informative and influencing functions. Since the influencing function is realized primarily in motives of varying degrees of categoricality (request, order, etc.) and tactics accompanying imperative subgenres, the purpose of this work is to identify imperative subgenres and other tactics of speech influence on the addressee in business letters to todo bichig, to analyze the ways and means of expressing the identified influencing techniques, as well as their comparison with simultaneous translations of letters into Russian. Materials and methods. The source of the material was the letters of Taisha (Khan) Ayuka, sent to representatives of the central and regional Russian authorities from 1665 to 1714, and their simultaneous translations into Russian, stored in the collections of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia. For this work, only those letters from the specified period have been selected that have preserved a synchronized translation into Russian. Results. The tactics of explaining the reasons for the request, providing a preliminary description of the situation, and reminding of mutual obligations are typical of Ayuka’s business letters. These tactics are preserved in synchronized Russian translations, although the actual request or other type of motivation may be conveyed not by imperative constructions, but by synonymous ones characteristic of the design of indirect speech. The addressee factor is important, as well as the process of establishing the norms of Russian office work. The choice of language means in synchronized translation could also depend on an oral conversation with the envoy of Khan Ayuka, since in some cases synchronized translations of letters contain additions in the legal context of the request, representing additional means of influencing the addressee.