Commonplace and Creativity: The Role of Formulaic Diction in Anglo-Scottish Traditional BalladryAs the first book of its kind Commonplace and Creativity offers a comprehensive study of the formulaic narrative technique in the traditional ballads of England and Scotland. It outlines a new concept of the ballad formula and presents a new assessment of how formulas function in context. The author analyses more than 2.000 formula lines and stanzas, and emphasizing the distinctly dramatic, 'supra-narrative' potential of the coventional ballad language he demonstrates that singers may use formulas discriminatingly to produce their 'own' versions of the ballads. Formulas can be characterized in terms of both stability and variation, and consequently they are an important vehicle for the traditional re-creativity and gradual re-interpretation which are so vital for the life of the ballad tradition. |
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Contents
Michael Nagler and Paul Kiparsky | 17 |
3 | 29 |
Formulas and ContextBound Formulations | 44 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Annie appears arrives asks ballad formulas ballad story ballad tradition Bonny Baby Livingston bonny boy bower bride Bronson Brown castle wall Child Maurice Child Waters context court Dainty Doon daughter death Earl Crawford employed English eventually expressions father Fause Foodrage following ballads formlernes formula family formula status formulaic diction Geordie goes HADNA Hind Etin Holzapfel horn formula horse hurries Isabel Janet Jeannie Robertson Johnie Scot Johnie's killed king King Estmere king's knee knight Lady Barnard Lady Maisry Laird letter Little Musgrave Lizzie Higgins looking Lord Barnard Lord Thomas lover Margaret marry Mary messenger-boy mother mula Nagler narrative idea oral overtones phrases pregnant present princess private tape queen repetition returns Robin saddle Scottish sends sewing singers songs Stanley Robertson stanza structure supra-narrative function takes Tam Lin tion traditional balladry true-love turns round versions wedding wife William Willie Young Beichan young girl