Tradition or Innovation? : An Explanation of Some Formulas in The Destruction of Troy

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  • Tradition or Innovation An Explanation

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Ritzke-Rutherford (1981a) proposes a framework of the compositional elements of Middle English (abbreviated as ME) alliterative poetry and calls the formularity of language and style as the formulaic microstructure (formula, system, and cluster) and that of content and narrative structure as the formulaic macrostructure (motif, type-scene and theme). It may be maintained that the elements of the formulaic microstructure include, in addition to the above three by Ritzke-Rutherford, also the concept of mold. This concept was proposed by Waldron (1957) and modified by Suzuki (1984). Furthermore, the definitions of a formula and a system by Ritzke-Rutherford should be modified by applying the definition of a formula by Fry (1967) and that of a system by Suzuki (1969), respectively. Based on the definitions of a formula, a system, and a mold, examined are the groups of words with such a syntactic structure as "ADJ. + men + PREP. + NOUN" in The Destruction of Troy (abbreviated as DT). The comparison of the examples in DT with those having the same syntactic structure in other ME alliterative poems reveals a peculiarity in the formulas of the DT-poet. Such a peculiarity is regarded as an innovative aspect of the DT-poet in the traditional style of ME alliterative poetry.

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KJ00005444530

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