FROM SPONTANEOUS SPEECH TO FOLKLORE TEXT: MARKERS OF NARRATIVIZATION IN ORAL NARRATIVE

Abstract

The article examines the problem of distinguishing between traditional and “one-off” texts, a distinction that has gained relevance due to the expansion of folklore studies’ scope to include texts featuring spontaneous speech. The research focuses on mythological narratives, which occupy an intermediate position between these two types. The aim of the study is to identify the linguistic mechanisms of narrativization that facilitate the transition from an unstructured utterance to a regulated, coherent text. Primary attention is paid to grammatical markers, especially deictic elements, which function differently in the dialogic mode of speech and in the narrative mode. In a personal testimonial (memorate), orientation stems from the speaker’s position (I – here – now), characteristic of a canonical speech situation. Narrativization, however, involves constructing the text’s chronotope independently of the immediate speech context: the speaker’s deictic markers are eliminated, forming an autonomous “textual world” with conditional characters and time. This grammatical shift, occurring through repeated retelling and a change in the text’s status to “someone else’s”, forms the basis of folklorization, enabling subsequent traditional control over the text’s form.