Types and markers of narrative discourse in Galen's Anatomical Writings

A significant part of the voluminous corpus of texts by Galen (129–210/217 AD) are composed of works written in the genre of narrative prose. In this article, using the material of his anatomical works, in particular, the work "On the bones for beginners", different types of narrative discourse and their linguistic markers are analyzed, such as first-person statements, self-references, transitions from the past tense to the present or future, metadiscursive expressions and appeals to a fictitious interlocutor, expressions of the author's opinion or value judgments, the use of extraclausal components, such as interjections and particles of the ancient Greek language. The results of the study showed that the style of narrative prose by Galen is characterized by features of conversational diaphonic discourse, which implies a continuous dialogue with the reader. Despite the author's distinct style, it is noted that Galen's prose has a number of common features with the works of the sophists of his time who belonged to the circle of the Second Sophistic, such as Lucian or Aelius Aristides, and, on the contrary, differs greatly from the technical prose of his medical contemporaries, for example, from the works of Rufus of Ephesus, Soranus or the authors of the Pseudo-Galenic corpus of texts. Further study of the narrative discourse in Galen's texts opens up broad prospects for the analysis and mapping of his texts, which will allow us to see the intertextual layers of his works that are hidden to this day, as well as to understand the specifics of Greek prose of the imperial period. The article may be useful to philologists, linguists, historians of science and medicine and find application in lecture courses and practical classes on the analytical reading of ancient authors.