THE SEMIOTICS AND POETICS OF SOUTH CAUCASIAN NONSENSE VOCABULARY. (original) (raw)
Metaphorical undercurrents in Bulgarian folk songs
2017
The research explores Bulgarian folk songs and focuses on metaphors based on terms from the semantic field of water. It analyzes them as elements of a system of implications related to the spiritual life of the Bulgarian people. Based on the conception of the dual nature of water – an uncontrollable element and a substance promoting life, a hypothesis is construed about the existence of a plane of suggestion different from the planes of form, content and the aesthetic charge of Bulgarian folk songs. This metaphoric undercurrent is a unique code that is instrumental in the construction of relations parallel to those depicted in the songs. These can be allusions to the times of mythology; references to the roots of consciousness, when nomination was conducted from the outer to the inner, from nature to the individual who identified with it and whose outlook was ecological rather than ethnocentric.
Genre-forming function of factic elements of language in Russian and Tatar lyrics
Linguistics and Culture Review
The article identifies linguistic "initial phenomena" of lyrical genres, forming the core of genre identity of the work and having universal character - supernatural and supranational. It has been concluded that the non-literary "other" in relation to which artistic speech, first of all its lyrical subsystem taken in the aspect of its genre structure, is self-determined, is deixis. On the basis of the analysis of the philosophical lyrics of Russian and Tatar poets of the XIX-XX centuries, it has been established that the genre of "definitions" goes back to the deuttic elements of language. In Russian and Tatar literatures it has similar features: the focus on the process of knowledge (dominance of the hermeneutic code), the reflection in the subject architect of the works of the processes of identification and self-identification of the lyrical subject, the use of tropical and mythopoetic figurative "languages." At the same time in Tatar poetr...
A SEMIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SONG "MOLITVA"
New Sound, 2007
In view of the popularity it gained by winning last year's Eurosong festival and by the controversial reactions it provoked in the media, the pop ballad Molitva (Prayer) -written by composer Vladimir Graić and lyricist Saša Milošević Mare, and performed by Marija Šerifović -lends itself to semiological analysis. Given the variety of techniques and the possibilities of the semiological interpretative model, 2 its application in this analysis of Molitva will be carried out in two ways: text analysis and context analysis.
The Poetics of Meráki: Dialogue and Speech Genre in Kalymnian Song
The dominant vehicle for oral poetry in the song culture of Kálymnos is the mantinádha, a rhyming couplet in iambic decapentameter. Though this poetic form has been studied extensively by philologists and anthropologists working in the Greek Aegean, a combined philological, ethnographic, and musicological approach is necessary to establish an expanded theoretical framework capable of exploring the interaction between poetry, music, and sociality. In performance, the texts of these poems are stretched, rearranged, interrupted, and delayed in order to conform to the contours of different melodies, each of which makes unique structural demands on the couplets that are sung to it. Close musical, metrical, and ethnographic analysis of several performances and attention to the interpretive choices of the expert performer or meraklís suggests an implicit theory, a model of the internal theory encoded in the music that governs the Kalymnian melody-poetry interface and reveals the ways in which the application of specific poetic and musical techniques both heightens the dialogic quality of these couplets and imbues them with socially poetic power.
The song-object between theory and practice : diachronic, geographic and cultural variation
This article presents several aspects of research published over the course of the past several years considering both problems linked to different ways of referring to song-objects in French language and problems of referential quasi-equivalence of song genres from one language to another considered from an interlectal perspective. The variety of terms discussed form part of a diachronic movement illustrating the interpenetration of languages and song types over the course of centuries. Few problems are analysed, among others: the borrowings between signed songs and traditional songs, the heteroge-neity of the corpus of song-objets and how it is reflected in the dictionaries. Those familiar with my previous works published in French will recognize some elements of reflexions presented already in books such as Vers une théorie des objets-chansons or Chanson, son histoire et sa famille dans les dictionnaires de langues française, Etude lexicale, historique et théorique. This short contribution will allow anglo-phon readers to get used with some of my concepts in such a way that my lexical contribution to the study of song-objet progressively enters in the practices. This will serve not only the musicologists, but also linguists, philologist and those who are generally concerns with the problem we met in the termi-nological description of a scientific activity diachronically. Keywords Song, intercultural studies, musical terminology, lexicography, poetry (history) ÖZ Makalede son yıllarda yaptığımız araştırmaların değişik görünümlerinin bir sunumunu yapıyoruz ; örneğin bir nesne olarak şarkıya gönderme yaparak, şarkı türünün bir dilden ötekine türselliği bakımından denkliklerini bir söylem biçiminin ötekinden nasıl yararlandığı görüngüsünde ele alıyoruz. Tartışmaya açılan terimlerdeki çeşitlilik artsüremsel bir devinime bağlı olarak değişik dillerin ve şarkı türlerinin yüzyıllar boyunca iç içeliği ele alınacaktır. Çözümlenen sorunların kimileri şunlardır : belirtilen şarkılar yanında geleneksel şarkıların aralarındaki alışverişler, şarkılar bütünc-esinde beliren ayrışıklık özelliği, söz konusu ayrışıklığın sözlüklerde tanımlanma biçimleri vb. Daha önce bu konuda yapılan çalışmalarla içli dışlı olanlar Vers une Théorie des objets-chansons ou Chanson, son histoire et sa famille dans les dictionnaires de langue française, Etude lexicale, historique et théorique adlı kitap çalışmalarımda öne çıkarıp tartıştığım konulardan haberliler. Şarkıların birer nesne olarak sözlüksel alanına katkı yapmaya yönelik bu çalışma gitgide kursamsal uygulamalara dahil olacaktır. Bu yaklaşım müzikbilimle uğraşanlar dışında dilbilim, filoloji ile uğraşanlara da katkı sağlayacaktır. Özellikle artsüremsel bir görüngüde bilimsel aktiviteler içerinside olanlar için terminolojik betimle-melere bağlı olarak ortaya çıkan sorunlara ilgi duyanlara da katkı sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler Şarkı, kültürlerarası çalışmalar, müzikal terimler, sözlükbilim,şiir (tarih)
Constructing Alien Space in South Slavic Oral Lyric
Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore, 2018
The paper discusses alien space as a construct whose meanings are variable and depend on the assumed perspective, context of singing, and human relations. Alien space is constructed in South Slavic oral lyric as a space of the Other or as the other (liminal) space. The analyzed songs show tension between the alien and own worlds. The alien spaces are marked by relations of alienness and neighborliness. These relations are changeable and limited by the period of the ritual. The ritual context of songs and the ritual inversions of meanings and order make the spatial constructs complex. Oral lyric dominantly subjects the locus to the characters, whereby it has an attributive function. The songs make an analogy between the alien space and the Other. They model alien spaces as unknown, far, fantastic, wild, and dangerous, and as places of death. The paper deals with liminal zones as radically alien. These zones connect or separate own and alien spaces, enabling communication between them. The alien space is constructed as dominantly non-homogeneous and unintegrated, and as such it is an ample reservoir of meanings in oral songs.
PROSPECTS FOR ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN SOUTH-EAST EUROPE, 2019
Contemporary singing to the gusle and the new decasyllabic songs made in the style of the Serbian “classical epics” ‒ which both gained in public visibility with the break-up of Yugoslavia ‒ is a phenomenon which calls for scholars’ attention. Until recently, the interest has been reduced to the attempts of explaining its sudden expansion by relating it to the rising nationalism and populism during the 1990s. This made some authors reduce the whole contemporary singing to the gusle to the instrument for promoting the warmongering and extreme-nationalist ideas. The disdain for these ideological and political standpoints was transferred not only to the “new” singing to the gusle, but to the gusle itself and their language ‒ which put some scholars in the situation to defend this instrument and the language of the epic genre from accusations of their “historical guilt” for the war during the nineties. This paper aims to show that the contemporary singing to the gusle ‒ at least among the Serbian population ‒ is a complex phenomenon (both from the thematic and functional points of view) and that the songs about the events and historical protagonists of the nineties are only one of its subtypes. Communication in epic decasyllables is discussed as one of the historically recorded registers of the Serbian language, which, as such, should not be the object of ethical evaluation, since it does not imply any ethical value in its very form and structure.
Figurative Semiotics: A Textual Analysis of FAK Songs
This article explores the ideological content of (political) folk songs in apartheid South Africa. The FAK Sangbundel (songbook) found its way into countless Afrikaner homes, churches, organisations and schools, and became unanimous with Afrikaner culture and nationalism, imprinting certain beliefs and ideas on society. Johann Visagie's Figurative Semiotics theory serves to expose hidden ideological elements in discourse or, in this case, folk song texts. Within the semiological field different themes (symbols, metaphors, models, myth, narrative, irony, etc.) are analysed but in this specific theory, the distinction between the individual themes is not as important as identifying the figurative expressions present in ideological discourse. Although these themes are labelled as 'metaphors', it is only a collective expression to refer to the individual semiological themes involved in an analysis. Despite the fact that Figurative Semiotics theory was not originally designed to be used within the field of musicology, it is not considered to be a hindrance in terms of this investigation because of the fact that the musical nature of the songs does not lend itself to a detailed analysis of musical parameters, but rather displays conformist, stereotyped musical formats. Through application of Visagie's theory on the song texts, and, where possible, on musical parameters of the songs, an acute awareness of the musical dimension within an ideological environment was established and it is indeed the simplicity of the folk songs that so uniquely contributes to the effortless transferral of ideology-politcal content and values to masses of people, thereby contributing to the underlying and sometimes hidden ideological deep structures found in political folk song texts.
E3S Web of Conferences, 2021
This study aims to describe the language style contained in the lyrics of the song Citra Cinta, Sifana, Lack of Salt, and the Coronavirus by Rhoma Irama. The research data is in the form of song lyrics from the four songs. The method used in this study includes three strategic stages, namely the stage of data collection, data analysis, and presentation of the results of data analysis. The results showed that in the four-song lyrics which were used as the object of the study, there were language styles of the affirmation, comparison, and contradictory groups. The affirmation language style group includes parallelism, enumeration, pleonasm, repetition, climax, interruption, correction, and asidenton. For the comparative language style group, there are similes, litotes, metaphors, allusions, and groups of contradictory styles that have only one type, namely antithesis.
Parallelism and Musical Structures in Ingrian and Karelian Oral Poetry
Oral Tradition 31(2): 331–354 , 2018
The focus of this essay is the complex relationship between textual parallelism and performance in historical oral poetry. Since there is no possibility of carrying out any personal ethnographic fieldwork, the main approach to the local categorizations and meanings of singing is to analyze recurrent patterns and combinations of different elements in archival material. This approach relates to discussions about ethnopoetics and textualizing oral poetry. 1 Previously, I have analyzed the local understanding of genres and registers via the analysis of the relationships between poetic texts, melodic structures, singing practices, and performance arenas in archival material relating to one cultural area (Kallio 2013 and 2015). The present essay analyzes relationships between textual parallelism and musical structures in sound recordings from two Finnic singing cultures with related languages and similar poetic forms, but different singing practices. The singers of Ingria and Archangel Karelia had slightly different uses, versions, and interpretations of so-called kalevalaic or Kalevala-metric poems (runo-songs). 2 The singing styles of these poems varied by region, song genre, performance setting, and performer, and these kinds of factors also affected the relationship of textual and musical parallelism. On a general level, the recordings may be divided into four, partly overlapping cases: 1) There is no regular connection between textual parallelism and musical structures. 2) Textual parallelism is highlighted by melodic variation. 3) Patterns of verse repetition are connected to textual parallelism. 4) Textual parallelism and musical structures are mutually coordinated in a way that may even approach regular patterns of two or four verses. The analysis of the relationship of the linguistic (or textual) features and the forms of performance is a task involving both abstract metrics and practical performances. In the case of Kalevala-metric oral poetry, certain forms of performance may affect poetic structures, such as Oral Tradition, 31/2 (2017): 331-354 1 For example, see Hymes (1981); Tedlock (1983) on ethnopoetics; Fine (1984); Honko (1998) on textualization; on epic poetry, see also Foley (1995) and Harvilahti (2003). 2 On the complex connotations of different labels for the Finnic traditions, see Kallio et al. (2017); on the characteristics and differences of Ingrian and Karelian singing, see Siikala (1994 and 2000).
Worldview of Belarusian Folk Song Lyrics
Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 2018
This article concentrates on Belarusian folk song lyrics. Song lyrics were first recorded in the 1840s. Today, Belarusian folk song lyrics are a sufficiently widespread genre in the countryside. Although new plots are not created, plots known from the first recorded lyrics are prevalent everywhere. However, previously the worldview of Belarusian folk song lyrics was not the subject of research. Therefore, the aim of the article is to show the unique and specific worldview of these songs.
A Stylistic Study of Figurative Language in Oliver Mtukudzi’s Selected Songs
Springer International Publishing eBooks, 2022
While language can be artistically expressed in a plethora of ways, song is one way, among others, in which the artist has the potential to articulate their intended message to the target audience (Chimbarage et al. 2013; Marongedze 2019). Hence, music potentially becomes a site for human agency, where artists, in a creative manner, manipulate language (un)consciously to evoke strong and emotive impressions to the listener, which distinguishes one artist from another. Such creativity, which is in essence the artist's style, distinguishes the artist from other artists. Essentially, style is a mode in which something is written, spoken and performed (Leech and Short 2007; Zhao 2012). In literary discourse, it is the peculiarity at an individual level which identifies an artist, differentiating him from other artists. This study falls within the ambit of stylistics. Stylistics is a branch of applied linguistics, which studies style in texts, especially but not
The International Journal of Humanities & Social Studies, 2019
Introduction African art is to a large extent no longer a response to the traditional attempts at redefinition of the African experience that Ashcroft et.al (1989) refers to as, 'The Empire writes back to the Metropolis.' Mwangi (2009) introduces the concept of, 'The Empire writes back to Self.,' contending that African artists are no longer in a struggle to redefine, the African cultural identity and salvage the African image from colonial and postcolonial stereotype labels of inferiority. Literary composition in Africa today is addressing contemporary African issues affecting the African people within the African situation and as they relate with the outside world. Mwangi (2009) proposes a reflexive reading of African texts. Reflexive reading involves analyzing African art forms as home-grown entities that are writing back to themselves, to the African realities and to one another. In this case, the content of the songs is an authentic reflection of the African contemporary situation and realities. For example, the subject matter of the contemporary Gῖkũyũ popular song addresses emergent postcolonial themes such as urbanization, shifting gender ideologies, cultural transition, change and economic trends as they relate to the construction of modern Gῖkũyũ romance. This factor merits a reflexive reading approach within the precept of the 'Writing Back to Self' theory because African art is now a model of self-articulation for Africans. The songs are African in structure and content and although they are a product of inter-borrowing and inter-textuality, they contextually operate within the African situation. Inter-textuality is the compositional integration of structural components of song production resultant from cultural inter-borrowing between African artiste and western forms. Indeed, the consumers of the songs revealed during live show interaction that the art relates to Gῖkũyũ realities and experience and that is why the songs were read as reflexive. Romance is a fanciful, expressive and pleasant feeling in an individual, caused by an emotional attraction to another person of the opposite sex. All human beings experience romance and this gives it a universal characteristic. Hatfield & Rapson (2007) take romance to be closely related to sexual attraction although there is more emphasis on emotions than physical pleasure. Ellis (1960), says that romantic love is a mixture of emotional and sexual desire; emotional highs, exhalation, passion and elation. It also includes friendship, tenderness and affection characterized by passionate words, kind tone of voice, smiley facial expression to a romantic lover and good actions to a partner. The premise of romance may not be described exclusive of the concept of passionate love. For this study, the terms passionate love and romantic love have been used interchangeably with romance. Passionate love is a universal human emotion experienced by many people in all the cultures of the world. Fischer & Carnochan (1990) state that romantic love is expressed in subjectivity to a variety of cultural contexts inclusive of traditional, modern, urban and rural contexts, as well as affluence or poverty status. In agreement with this idea, these factors may be considered to influence the nature and character of romance frameworks inherent in different cultures such as Gῖkũyũ. Cultural values affect and influence the mode of expressing passionate love in different cultures.
‘Un bel moretto’: Linguistic Interweavings in Songs from the Primorska Region
Traditiones, 2023
Lan sem biu u Gorici" (Last Year I was in Gorizia) is the most frequently transcribed bilingual song in which Slovenian and Italian dialect texts are interwoven. Unlike variants from Goriška Brda and Venetian Slovenia, where the song has largely been forgotten, the variants in Istria are experiencing a revival and are referred to as typical Istrian songs. The article traces the meandering transitions between different linguistic variants and local appropriations of this song.
Payap University and UNRN Research Symposium, 2022
Language and arts both have communication systems and structures that can be analyzed. This paper explores some basic parallels in analysis techniques and contrasts of usefulness of those techniques between language and arts, specifically, song forms. The analysis presented in this paper focuses on the Tampuan ethnolinguistic community from Ratanakiri, Cambodia. An example is given of some poetic text analysis that introduces the usefulness of that analysis to one Tampuan expert singer as he works to transmit Tampuan music knowledge to a younger generation. Following the text example, a melodic grammar analysis of three different vocal genres leads to a greater emic understanding of how melodies are perceived through melodic allotones related to the tuning of a Tampuan tube zither and flat gongs. The concept of an etic/emic intercultural process is central to the commonalities between linguistic and arts analysis and yet further comparison leads to reflexivity on the applications of linguistic and arts analysis and research in the context of sociolinguistics and benefits to ethnolinguistic communities. ภาษาและศิลปะต่างมีระบบการสื่อสารและโครงสร้างที่สามารถวิเคราะห์ได้ การศึกษานี้วิเคราะห์ความเหมือนเบื้องต้นของเทคนิคการวิเคราะห์และความแตกต่างของประโยชน์ของเทคนิคเหล่านี้ระหว่างภาษาและศิลปะ โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งในรูปแบบของบทเพลง การวิเคราะห์ที่นำเสนอในบทความนี้มุ่งเน้นไปที่ชุมชนชาติพันธ์ตำปวนจากเมืองรัตนาคีรี ประเทศกัมพูชา การวิเคราะห์กวีนิพนธ์ถูกยกมาเป็นตัวอย่างซึ่งแสดงให้เห็นถึงประโยชน์ของการวิเคราะห์จากนักร้องเพลงภาษาตำปวนมืออาชีพในขณะที่เขามุ่งหน้าส่งต่อความรู้เกี่ยวกับบทเพลงภาษาตำปวนให้กับคนรุ่นถัดไป จากการวิเคราะห์ดังกล่าวประกอบไปด้วยการวิเคราะห์ทางไวยากรณ์ของทำนองเพลงที่แตกต่างกันสามรูปแบบนำไปสู่ความเข้าใจของคนท้องถิ่นว่าท่วงทำนองเหล่านี้มีการรับรู้ผ่านการจัดสรรท่วงทำนองที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการปรับเสียงพิณและฆ้องแบนของชาวตำปวนอย่างไร แนวความคิดของกระบวนการระหว่างวัฒนธรรมผ่านมุมมองคนท้องถิ่น/นักมานุษยวิทยาเป็นสิ่งที่เหมือนกันระหว่างการวิเคราะห์ทางภาษาศาสตร์และศิลปะ และการเปรียบเทียบเพิ่มเติมยังนำไปสู่การมองกลับไปถึงการประยุกต์ใช้การวิเคราะห์เชิงภาษาศาสตร์และศิลปะ และการวิจัยในบริบทของภาษาศาสตร์เชิงสังคม และประโยชน์ต่อชุมชนชาติพันธ์
Theory and practice in language studies, 2024
Campursari lyrics have distinctive characteristics in refining word choices, even in contexts that may be considered vulgar. Likewise, the artists constantly adapt to the changing times. They understand that excessively harsh or vulgar word choices can undermine the beauty and wisdom they intend to convey. In this regard, the present study aimed to analyze word choices to refine the vulgar context in the lyrics of the Campursari song "Gubug Asmoro." The research method employed was descriptive qualitative with a semiotic analysis approach based on Charles Sanders Pierce's theory. Data collection techniques included observation and note-taking. The research data consisted of lyrics manifesting as words, phrases, and sentences representing gender imbalances. Data analysis techniques involved content analysis and focus group discussions. The findings of this study could contribute to the fields of linguistics, Campursari music, and language usage in song lyrics. The results documented the semantic and contextual variations in word choices used to refine the vulgar context in Campursari lyrics, aiming to understand how their usage could influence listeners' perception of art and culture. The semiotic analysis by Charles Sanders Pierce was incorporated to provide a deeper understanding of the connection between vulgar words, the context of traditional music art, and how social interpretations were formed through their usage. Thus, this research could contribute to the understanding of meaning construction and representation in the context of popular art and culture in Indonesia, particularly within the Campursari genre.
Musical phraseology and linguistic identity
2014
The article is dedicated to the description of the ways of modeling the linguistic identity on the basis of studying the musical phraseology and its role in the musical view of the world. On the basis of the level-approach the elements of the linguistic identity of the Russian composer A. N. Skryabin and the French musician C. Debussy are considered. By investigation of the lingvocultural character types of the professions of art the integrative approach seems to be the most promising one. This approach includes the study of the cultural aspect of their speech behavior in combination with the linguistic approach including description of the communications behavior of bearers of either elite or mass linguistic culture, characteristics of people from the perspective of their communicative competence, analysis of the creative and standard linguistic consciousness.
Language Style in the Lyrics of the Song “ Virus Corona “, “Bencana”, and “Suratan” by Rhoma Irama
E3S Web of Conferences, 2021
Song lyrics can be used to communicate the author’s message to others. The songwriter can express what he feels, sees, and experiences. The song lyrics by Roma Irama are fascinating in terms of language style. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to describe the language style used in the lyrics of Rhoma Irama’s songs “Virus Corona,” “Bencana,” and “Suratan.” This study used the data in the form of song lyrics snippets from the three songs. The data was gathered through the listening method, which involved listening to the three songs displayed on YouTube. The lyrics of the songs were then recorded and analyzed using stylistic theory. According to the study’s findings, the language styles used in the lyrics of “Virus Corona,” “Bencana,” and “Suratan” are climax, parallelism, antithesis, anaphor, asyndeton, pleonasm, rhetorical questions, paraphrases, litotes, metaphors, and cynicism. As a result, Rhoma Irama employs a variety of language styles in the lyrics of his three songs.