Chapter 153Poetic and Elevated Language

153.1 Elevated wording and performance

A=tomte itak ‘ornamented language’ differs from ordinary yayan itak through vocabulary, complex word formation, expanded expressions, and recurrent formulas. Nakagawa distinguishes this register contrast from the division into verse and prose. Elevated expressions can occur in prose, and the grammar of a poetic prayer need not match narrative person marking Nakagawa (2024: 586, 592, 600–602).

The register also includes metaphor, exaggeration, understatement, and paired phrases. Satō treats these as literary techniques; he suggests that metrical requirements and the demands of remembering long performances contribute to formulaic wording Satō (2008: 264, §34.4) Endō (2022: §4).

153.2 Vocabulary and incorporated expressions

Nakagawa's lexical comparisons include ordinary cise ‘house’ beside elevated kenru, cip ‘boat’ beside nimam, and ru ‘path’ beside kiroru. Choice can depend on the passage: a dog called seta in a prose tale is addressed as reyep ‘creeping one’ in a prayer within that tale Nakagawa (2024: 586–587, example 1252 and Table 87).

Complex incorporated words can combine grammatical derivation with material serving the metre. Nakagawa analyzes the following Saru formation with incorporated pusa ‘tassel’ and metrical kur.

Satō describes relatively frequent applicative constructions and complex words in his Chitose elevated material. These tendencies coexist with ordinary-language uses of the same grammatical processes Satō (2008: 263–264, §34.3). See Chapter 78 (Applicative Constructions and Their Arguments).

153.3 Expanded verbs and person placement

One expansion surrounds an intransitive base with middle ci- and causative-shaped morphology. In Nakagawa's analysis, the resulting expression retains the original intransitive event while increasing its length Nakagawa (2024: 590–591, §25.3.1).

Other expansions distribute person marking and lexical meaning over separate words. Nakagawa describes nominalized verbal material followed by person-marked ki. In the next example, he analyzes the second ki as metrical material Nakagawa (2024: 599–600, §25.4.3).

With transitive bases, he describes a related expansion using ci- and person-marked ekarkar. Its Chitose prose example shows that the construction extends beyond sung verse Nakagawa (2024: 591–592, examples 1260–1261).

153.4 Metrical additions and formula variation

Nakagawa identifies metrical uses of ko, konna, kur, and or, including places where their usual lexical or grammatical relations are absent. The classification concerns those constructions; it does not make every occurrence of these forms semantically empty Nakagawa (2024: 592–595).

Formulaic wording also permits variation. Nakagawa compares two performances of the same Chitose tale, two years apart, with different ordering and elaboration of its sewing formulas. He treats these as alternative realizations of shared material Nakagawa (2024: 614–615, examples 1333–1334). See Chapter 152 (Parallelism, Couplets, and Paired Expressions) and Chapter 151 (Sakehe, Refrains, and Verse Structure).

153.5 Register, person, and historical age

Narrative fourth person and elevated style overlap without having identical distributions. Nakagawa's Saru prayer example uses ordinary ku= in elaborated expressions, while prose narration uses a= and =an Nakagawa (2024: 601–602, example 1306, citing Kubodera 1977b:13–14).

He also rejects identifying elevated language wholesale with an older stage of everyday speech. Individual archaisms may survive, but much of its structure reflects literary and metrical elaboration Nakagawa (2024: 600–601). The competing accounts of narrative person are presented in Chapter 150 (Narrative Person and Reported Speech).