Category: English

Parallelism and Orders of Signification (Parallelism Dynamics I)

John Fletcher Published: Categories: English

This essay sets out an approach to parallelism in verbal art as a semiotic phenomenon that can operate at multiple orders (or levels) of signification. It examines parallelism in the sounds through which words are communicated, in language communicated by those sounds, in symbols or minimal units of narration communicated through language, and then in […]

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Parallelism and Orders of Signification (Parallelism Dynamics I)

John Fletcher Published: Categories: English

This essay sets out an approach to parallelism in verbal art as a semiotic phenomenon that can operate at multiple orders (or levels) of signification. It examines parallelism in the sounds through which words are communicated, in language communicated by those sounds, in symbols or minimal units of narration communicated through language, and then in […]

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“Said a Word, Uttered Thus”: Structures and Functions of Parallelism in Arhippa Perttunen’s Poems

John Fletcher Published: Categories: English

Verse parallelism is one of the most distinctive features of a Finnic tradition of oral poetry, which is called “kalevalaic poetry” in Finland or “regilaul” in Estonia. This essay presents grammatical and semantic principles and patterns according to which parallel verses are composed, and introduces a statistical analysis of parallelism in the repertoire of one […]

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“Said a Word, Uttered Thus”: Structures and Functions of Parallelism in Arhippa Perttunen’s Poems

John Fletcher Published: Categories: English

Verse parallelism is one of the most distinctive features of a Finnic tradition of oral poetry, which is called “kalevalaic poetry” in Finland or “regilaul” in Estonia. This essay presents grammatical and semantic principles and patterns according to which parallel verses are composed, and introduces a statistical analysis of parallelism in the repertoire of one […]

The post “Said a Word, Uttered Thus”: Structures and Functions of Parallelism in Arhippa Perttunen’s Poems appeared first on Oral Tradition.

Parallelism in the Hanvueng: A Zhuang Verse Epic from West-Central Guangxi in Southern China

John Fletcher Published: Categories: English

Zhuang is a Tai-Kadai language spoken in southern China. Parallelism is ubiquitous in Zhuang poetry and song,in ritual texts, and in a range of oral genres. Curiously, this salient fact has generally escaped the notice of scholars writing on the subject of Zhuang poetics. This article looks specifically at the phenomenon of parallelism in one […]

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Parallelism in the Hanvueng: A Zhuang Verse Epic from West-Central Guangxi in Southern China

John Fletcher Published: Categories: English

Zhuang is a Tai-Kadai language spoken in southern China. Parallelism is ubiquitous in Zhuang poetry and song,in ritual texts, and in a range of oral genres. Curiously, this salient fact has generally escaped the notice of scholars writing on the subject of Zhuang poetics. This article looks specifically at the phenomenon of parallelism in one […]

The post Parallelism in the Hanvueng: A Zhuang Verse Epic from West-Central Guangxi in Southern China appeared first on Oral Tradition.

Parallelism and Musical Structures in Ingrian and Karelian Oral Poetry

John Fletcher Published: Categories: English

Listening to historical oral poetry usually means listening to archival sound recordings with no possibility to ask questions or compare performances by one singer in different performance arenas. Yet, when a greater number of recordings from different singers and by different collectors is available, the comparison of these performances has the potential to reveal some […]

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Parallelism and Musical Structures in Ingrian and Karelian Oral Poetry

John Fletcher Published: Categories: English

Listening to historical oral poetry usually means listening to archival sound recordings with no possibility to ask questions or compare performances by one singer in different performance arenas. Yet, when a greater number of recordings from different singers and by different collectors is available, the comparison of these performances has the potential to reveal some […]

The post Parallelism and Musical Structures in Ingrian and Karelian Oral Poetry appeared first on Oral Tradition.

A Pebble Smoothed by Tradition: Lines 607-61 of Beowulf as a Formulaic Set-piece

Noel Spencer Published: Categories: English

In this essay Drout and Smith use new “lexomic” methods of computer-assisted statistical analysis to identify a concentration of unusual lexical, metrical, grammatical, and formulaic features in lines 607-61 of Beowulf, a scene in which Queen Wealhtheow passes the cup of friendship to the assembled warriors. Although the passage contains a number of proper names, […]

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Oral Features of the Qur’ān Detected in Public Recitation

Noel Spencer Published: Categories: English

This essay examines textual features of the Qur’ān that may emerge more prominently as a result of listening to it, features that might enhance insight gained during slow or silent reading sessions. Comparison with ancient Greek oral works, such as Homer, and an examination of Classical memory methodologies provide support for some of the oral […]

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The Fairy-Seers of Eastern Serbia: Seeing Fairies—Speaking through Trance

Noel Spencer Published: Categories: English

The fairy-seers of Southeastern Europe are generally women who are able to communicate with the invisible world. They claim to see women-like creatures and transmit messages from them. Sometimes they fell into a trance-like state in order to establish a communication. During this process the fairy-seers can prophesy future events. They bring messages to the […]

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Between the Oral and the Literary: The Case of the Naxi Dongba Texts

Noel Spencer Published: Categories: English

This essay considers the orality of ritual texts written in the Naxi dongba script from southwest China. Historically, the inherent orality of these texts has been largely ignored in favor of seeing them as a kind of visual “hieroglyphics.” Here, a case will be made that the Naxi texts represent an intermediary stage between the […]

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Eall-feala Ealde Sæge: Poetic Performance and “The Scop’s Repertoire” in Old English Verse

Noel Spencer Published: Categories: English

This essay identifies “The Scop’s Repertoire” as an Old English traditional theme. The theme associates the making of verse with three motifs: copiousness, orality, and antiquity. With close analogues in Old Saxon, Old and Middle High German, and Old Norse poetry, “The Scop’s Repertoire” originates in an oral Germanic tradition of versification. The theme thus […]

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