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I.TheMethodologicalBackground
oralandliterateculturebeingagradualprocessofcontinualshiftand,as
T.W
.Machanputsit,flacontinuumofchange”(cf.Amodio1994:20),
wherebyfromtheOldEnglishperioduptothecloseoftheMiddleAges
thewaysofsocialinteractionandartisticandliteraryactivityspecificto
theoralandliterateculturescoincideinawaywhichevolvesthrough
variousstagesofco-existence,wherebyauniquenetworkofmutualcorre-
spondencesiscreatedateachmomentofthetransitionlastingmany
centuries.Thismodelprovidesthecontextforthestudiesofthespecific
casesoftheparticularMiddleEnglishworkswhichfollowinthepublica-
tionslikethearticlesonthemedievalromancesbyN.M.Bradbury,
D.L.RondoloneorB.J.Harwood.Amodiodevelopsthemodelmore
exhaustivelyinhis2004publicationwherehisdetailedstudyofOldEnglish
andearlyMiddleEnglishworksisdevotedtotheanalysisoftheuseof
oralformulaicpatternswiththeprimarystressbeingputontheorality’s
functionofestablishingconventionalsemanticpatternsofmeaning.
Thelasttwodecadessawalsonewdevelopmentsinthebranchoforal-
formulaicstudieswhichdealsspecificallywiththecontextofmedieval
alliterativeverse.Hereweshouldmentionrecentpublications,likePaul
Acker’s1998studyofformulaeinOldEnglishandIslandicliterature,or
PaulHartle’sdetailedaccountofthevarietyofformulaicpossibilitiesin
MiddleEnglishalliterativepoetry(1999),bothofwhicharedevotedto
thestudyofthealliterativeversewiththespecificanalyticalapparatus
developedbyoral-formulaicstudies.
Otherimportantcontributionstothestudiesoforalityinthemedieval
contextarethearticlesofFlemmingG.AndersenandKarlReichlpublished
inJosephHarris’sTheBalladandOralLiteraturein1991.Andersen
developsthecaseforastrongconnectionbetweentheuseandfunction
offormulaicdictionandtheformalcharacteristicsoftheliterarygenre
withinthecontextofwhichtheyappear.Reichlproposesamostrevealing
newclassificationoftheoralformulaebasedonthephrases’functionin
variousaspectsoftheliteraryworkliketherhymeorthenarrativepatterns,
andalsodefinesthekeydistinctionbetweentheformulaandthetag,which
isadoptedinthepresentbook.Reichldefinedthetagasflasemantically
redundantlinewhosepresenceisentirelyconditionedbymetricalconsid-
erations”,whiletheformulaflformsapartofthedynamicsetofexpressions
usedtotellthetale”(cf.Amodio1994:20).
Finallyoneneedstomentionhereamostvitalanduniquelyimportant
studyofthe1990swhichisM.Carruthers’sTheBookofMemory.Although
itdoesnotimmediatelyrelatetomedievaloral-formulaicstudies,Carru-
