Formulaic Language the Use of Term Paper

Though formulaic language expressions have been in regular use, in popular media forms, for at least the majority of the twentieth century if not indeed for centuries longer, their recognition and study is recent development (Van Lancker-Sidtis & Rallon 2004). Some texts have even been found to be comprised of a quarter or of formulaic expressions, demonstrating at once a reliance on collective cultural interpretations and a marked lack of originality in popular media language use (Van Lancker-Sidtis & Rallon 2004). These phrases make for interpretations that are both more colloquially colored and less symbolically imbued for their necessarily repetitive nature (thus their emergence as formulaic expressions) and their needed consistency in order to remain meaningful (Van Lancker-Sidtis & Rallon 2004).

Music and Language

The relationship between music and language is the subject of a great deal of debate, and ever researchers that support comparisons between the two uniquely human cognitive phenomena discern several different and offer contradictory approaches to such comparisons (Powers 1980). It is possible to see certain elements of linguistic construction in the construction of musical phrases, combinations, and pieces as a whole, and at times it is tempting to attempt pairing the explicit language meant to accompany a piece of music (i.e. The lyrics of a song) with the units of grammar and syntax or the notions of semantics inherent to the piece of music, but attempting to connect both at the same time has been deemed to be impossible by certain researchers (Powers 1980).

Other scholars take a far more pessimistic view of any attempt to equate music to language, whether this includes an attempt to tie the structures and features of a song's lyrics to the perceived "structures" of musical syntax or not (Jackendoff 2009). There are as many significant differences between music and language, according to this view, as there are between any other major cognitive creations, and thus any comparison of music and language must either highlight their differences or show how they parallel almost any other cognitive process of creation (Jackendoff 2009).Still, this des not preclude the study of lyrical choices within the framework of certain musical genres.

There has actually been a fair amount of study regarding the different ways in which lyrics are used in varying musical genres in the modern age, and research shows that there are actually significant differences in the interpretation of lyrics and assignations of their overall value and intent based on the musical genre they are identified as being a part of (Ballard et al. 1999). That is, the same words and even the same whole phrases and verses are interpreted in different ways by the same reader depending in what genre they are identified as being a part of (Ballard et al. 1999). This necessarily has certain implications for lyrics when they are used and heard actually in the musical pieces of which they are a part -- different musical genres have different cultural relationships with language and meaning generally, and thus the ways in which they use formulaic language expressions will also necessarily be colored by these preconceived notions and the basic cultural understandings of musical genre (Ballard et al. 1999).

A Comparison of Lyrics

In order to explore the different ways in which lyrics find expression in relation to the genres in which they appear, and more specifically to examine the use of formulaic language in musical lyrics, several specific songs lyrics form the Pop and Country genres will be examined. The relation of these phrases to musical phrases and constructions is clearly different across these genres.

References

Ballard, M.; Dodson, a. & Bazzini, D. (1999). Genre of music and lyrical content: Expectation effects. Journal of Genetic Psychology 160(4), 476-87.

Jackendoff, R. (2009). Parallels and nonparallels between language and music. Music Perception 26(3), 195-204.

Lancker-Sidtis, D. & Rallon, G. (2004). Tracking the incidence of formulaic expressions in everyday speech: methods for classification and verification. Language and communication 24, 207-40.

Powers, H. (1980). Language models and musical analysis. Ethnomusicology 24(1),.....