Page 218 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

Say It in Singing! 193

Melodic/Prosodic Treatment

A finer analysis of the performance will be demonstrated in the next
two verses. Figure 6.5 displays the sequence of words. Once again,
the verse is split into two lines, with the first line exposing part of the
argument. However, the second line is a noticeable expansion of a brief
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sequence of (again) three words, Laksmı jaıla phirunı (Laskshmi will
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go doing a turn) with particular emphasis on phirunı.
The first line is both syntactically and semantically incomplete. It
is completed (semantically) with the second line thanks to the word
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vadyala (‘from the farm’) that is unrelated with the rest of the sentence.
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In fact, this word is almost inaudible (not even transcribed in the
recited text), but it was guessed by informants as it gives meaning to
the preceding line. A conventional linguistic treatment would be to
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append vadyala at the end of the first line, but here the tune discards
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it to a meaningless position in the second line. The tune calls a long
vowel at the end of the first line, here vowel /a/ rendered as /u/ as per
the stylistic signature of the tribal community this singer belongs to.
The most surprising feature of this verse is the emphasis put on
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the word phirunı, a declined form of phiravu that also played an im-
portant role when ‘sweeping the floor’ was rendered as ‘turning the
broom’. Thus, it constructs a sort of cyclic referential evocation of
three semes: Lakshmi, ‘the broom’ and ‘to turn’.
Figure 6.5
The Fourth Verse: ‘Woman, Lakshmi Will Go Away from My Son’

Source: Developed by the authors.