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.
Highlights
This paper presents a case study of Karelian Kalevala-metric incantations in order to illuminate the potential for register differences operating within a genre
The concept of register has been adapted in research on oral poetry relatively recently (Frog, 2015, 77), and scholars have customarily correlated register with genre
The -s particle and optative are more complex types: s is not used as a metrical filler, while the latter extends its function from metrical fillers to moderation in some contexts. This analysis provides a point of departure for further discussion about oral poetry's registers within an incantation genre
Summary
This paper presents a case study of Karelian Kalevala-metric incantations in order to illuminate the potential for register differences operating within a genre. The poetry was extremely formulaic coupled with emic ideas of text identity that make it possible to look at types of variation across readily commensurate groups of texts (Frog, 2016a; Siikala, 2002; Tarkka, 2013) This tradition offers a testing ground for exploring the potential for multiple registers within a genre. T. Karlsson / Language & Communication 78 (2021) 40–53 and hostile agents in incantations have the potential to be distinguished as different types of social situations and to employ different registers. I will analyze the variation in address by reviewing directive verbs, particle use, the optative mood, and justification present in the texts. The research questions are the following: 1) By what attributes are supporting and hostile agents distinguished from each other? 2) Are directive verbs with particles or the optative mood and justification used as indices of moderation in the data? And : 3) Do directives and particles operate mostly to meet metrical needs by filling a position where a syllable is required, or do they potentially index different relations between the performer and the addressed agents? By answering these questions, I hope to propose a more detailed view concerning workings of discursive registers in an oral tradition (cf. Gintsburg, 2018, 106)
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