| dc.description | Abstract The phenomenon I intend to examine in this essay is likewise common to very many oral traditions, and for that reason it may at first glance appear to be unremarkable. Like performers in diverse other traditions, the singers of South Slavic epic frequently have occasion to address their audiences directly in the course of performance. It is not readily apparent whether these appeals to the listener--which are accomplished, as we shall see, by means of very short, relatively inconspicuous expressions--have any function beyond simply inviting the audience to experience a sense of articipation in the performance. I will argue, however, that patterns of direct address in fact have an important discursive function, at least within the corpus of songs I have selected for examination. Appeals to the listener serve as cues that guide listeners' perceptions of narrated events and assist them in tracking points of articulation in the song. | eng |
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