laic patterns seem to be attached to particular kinds of situations or to
have particular meanings,as occur in human speech.
Human vocal utterances as they actually occur in everyday conversa-
tion have come into focus through a series of studies conducted by inves-
tigators committed to studying spoken conversation—real speech—as
the true heart of language.Studies by Peters (1983),Tannen (1989),
Chafe (1994),and Coates (1996),among others,generated new evidence
about conversation,its formulaicness,its organization in time as an inter-
active activity,and its expressiveness,evidence that has not yet been
assimilated into linguistics or into our general awareness about language.
What this work shows is that the content of ordinary conversational
speech is best described and understood as drawn from a collection of
hundreds of thousands of open-slot formulas whose lengths amount to
about a phrase or one or two clauses.People know,store,remember,have
access to,and produce these formulas as holistic,independent,and highly
idiosyncratic entities.On-line access to such a collection of open-slot
formulas best explains how people are able to carry out the idiomatic
fluency of conversational talking they do most of the time,at lightning
speed (see Pawley and Syder 1983).Such formulas are exemplified by
expressions such as,“I wouldn’t do that,if I were you,”with its open-slot
variants,“I wouldn’t say that,if I were you”and “I wouldn’t go there,if
I were you.”
How might such a collection of repeatable formulas,such a repertory
of holistic formulas,be built up? How,in fact,could it begin? How could
it grow and accumulate? How could whole groups of speaker-
participants work on and craft together sequences of sounds so that they
became stuck-together,definite entities with meanings that everyone
could agree upon,recognize,and use automatically? I suggest that the
key is regular expectancybased on repetitionand a regular beat;that is,
on what are essentially musicaldimensions.Repetition and Rhythmic Expectancy in Formula Fixing
I will present an account of how people were first able to craft and stick
together both spoken and musical formulas as definite somethings,and
how they did it through using some of the same interactive devices that
go on today in music making and almost as much in high-involvement,
many-voiced,overlapping talking.
Present-day music making in all its varied cultural forms is basically
and entirely built and organized around the principle of repetition (or
repetition with variation) on all levels.All kinds of music constantly
repeat,with variations,phrases,themes,motifs,riffs,rhythms,stanzas,303 On Rhythm,Repetition,and Meaning