Elsevier

Language & Communication

Volume 78, May 2021, Pages 40-53
Language & Communication

Register features in Kalevala-metric incantations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2021.02.005Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Multiple reflexive registers operate within the genre of Kalevala-metric incantations.

  • The registers are connected with situational use correlated with social relations.

  • A close textual analysis of the data shows the performer's ways of indexing moderation.

  • A re-assessment of the relation between genre and register in oral poetry is required.

Abstract

Genres and registers of Kalevala-metric poetry have customarily been treated as correlating concepts. The paper examines a category of Kalevala-metric Origin of Fire incantations as a text-type which includes multiple linguistic registers functioning inside the genre. These registers are reflexive formations, potentially established as social situations when addressing supernatural agents. The analysis of directive utterances in the data reveals that addressing of agents varies according to the addressee. An examination of moderative particles and justification of performer's actions results in a view of register-emblematic means of addressing different agents. Register-based approach provides a way to critically re-asses the relationship of genre and register in Kalevala-metric poetry.

Keywords

Kalevala-meter
Incantations
Register
Genre
Oral poetry

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