Illocution of Rumeli Folk Songs
Folk songs based on human experiences; are oral cultural elements that passed down from generation to generation. These cultural elements contribute to the formation of a cultural memory sand to cultural continuity. When the relationship between language and thought in the formation of cultural memory is examined, it is possible to say that folk songs can create a change in actual knowledge. This study was originated with the assumption that folk songs, which are a product of common linguistic behavior as a carrier of culture, have performative functions. Reveal these functions, Austin and later, Searle’s “speech act theory”, which adopts the understanding that making a sentence or constructing a phenomenon requires performing a function under certain conditions, was used as the analysis method. The starting point of the theory is that; ; it is thought that language does not perform its function independently in society, that cultural consensus is achieved by fulfilling this function, and that at the same time, information exchange can be created in the world of mind along with the universe of discourse. The language data in the study consists of Rumelian folk songs. The aim of the study is to determine the universe of discourse, the purposes for which the folk songs were created, and the functions they serve, assuming that Rumelian folk songs are memory transmitters. According to the findings, that Rumelian folk songs create an institutional phenomenon because they reflect cultural reality, encode the addressee’s feelings of longing and yearning stemming from not being able to reunite with their beloved and their homeland and carry performative purposes such as transferring social and religious rules.
Rumeli Türkülerinin Edimsözleri
İnsanoğlunun yaşanmışlıkları üzerine kurulan türküler; nesilden nesile aktarılan sözlü kültür ögeleridir. Söz konusu bu kültürel ögeler kültürel devamlılığın yanında kültürel belleğin oluşmasına da katkı sağlamaktadır. Kültürel belleğin oluşu/ munda dil ve düşünce ilişkisi irdelendiğinde türkülerin edimsel bilgi değişikliği yaratabileceğini söylemek mümkündür. Bu çalışma kültür taşıyıcısı olarak ortak bir dilsel davranış ürünü olan türkülerin edimsel işlevlerinin olduğu varsayımıyla oluşturulmuştur. İşlevlerin ortaya çıkarılması amacıyla bir cümle kurmanın veya bir önermeyi dile getirmenin esasen bir şey yapmayı gerektirdiği anlayışını benimseyen Searle’ün “Söz Edimi Kuramı” analiz yöntemi olarak kullanılmıştır. Söz konusu kuram, dilin temel işlevinin iletişim kurma olduğu esasına dayanmaktadır. Kuramın hareket noktası; dilin işlevini toplumdan bağımsız bir şekilde gerçekleştirmediği, bu işlevin yerine getirilmesiyle kültürel uzlaşımın sağlandığı, aynı zamanda oluşan söylem evreniyle bireylerin zihin dünyasında bilgi değişikliği yaratılabileceği düşüncesidir. Çalışmadaki dil verisini Rumeli türküleri oluşturmaktadır. Rumeli türkülerinin hafıza aktarıcısı olduğu varsayımıyla söylem evrenini tespit etmek, türkülerin oluşturulma amaçları ve hizmet ettikleri işlevleri belirlemek, çalışmanın gayesini oluşturmaktadır. Elde edilen bulgular doğrultusunda Rumeli türkülerinin kültürel gerçekliği yansıtması sebebiyle kurumsal bir olgu yarattığı, muhatabının zihin dünyasında sevgili ile vatana kavuşamamadan kaynaklanan hasret ve özlem duygularını kodladığı, toplumsal ve dinî kuralları aktarma gibi edimsel işlevler taşıdığı anlaşılmaktadır.
One of the functions of folk songs that can shape one’s individual and social life is to produce indicators that point to members of the same culture and express the common meaning that is attributed. Based on the indicators created based on experiences rather than fiction, it is understood that in folk songs, the subjects are not the ones who are acted upon, but individuals who act upon life. Another function of folk songs, which convey people and events that have a place in life through language, is to carry material to the field of social history. Rumelian folk songs, which enable the formation of a common cultural memory tahat provide historical material, are an important data source for researching the effects of historical events on society and social life. Rumelian folk songs, that ensure past values are continued with by reminding society of its past, are witnesses of the common past with the Balkans and at the same time, are memory transmitters. For this reason, establish the discourse universe of Rumelian folk songs, to determine the purposes of creating them and to elucidate the functions they serve, “speech act theory”, a sub/field of pragmatics, was decided as the method for this study. The theory of speech acts, which is based on the distinction between meaning and usage, is generally evaluated as “a set of concepts that mean that making a sentence or constructing a fact requires doing something under certain conditions.” For example, declaring a couple as husband and wife, convicting someone, taking an oath, or making a claim, among other examples, in addition to the statement, also express the existence of performative power and the occurrence of an action. Furtmore, it is possible that the performative power of language that emerges from use gains meaning from the convention in society, but and is not independent of society. To reveal communication intentions within this concept based on convention, Searle categorizes grammatical elements that have meaning. Therefore, grammatical elements are included in the theory as the “smallest meaningful unit and the smallest sign”. Searle describes these elements as “rules that enable us to move from a crude phenomenon such as making some sounds to an institutional phenomenon by performing acts specific to human communication”. Searle also divides illocutionary acts into five components: People tell how things are with “definitive” expressions, they try to make others act with “directive” expressions, they impose responsibility to act with “prescriptive” expressions, they express their feelings and attitudes with “expressive” expressions,and they bring about changes in the world with “declarations”. Language users benefit from typological and psychological competence levels in addition to pragmatic competence in their communication preferences. For this reason, variables such as power, social distance, social conditions, hierarchy, and emotional state among other examples are also in question, which determine the preferred illocutionary words. Rumelian folk songs, which can reflect social and individual variables and are a cultural element, were the source of this study. For this reason, we assumed that Rumelian folk songs reflect many acts that take place in life as a transmission element; folk songs have been evaluated as illocutionary words and subjected to Searle’s classification. In this direction, certainty in folk songs were provided by referring to a concrete and natural reality, confirming the thought by asking questions, using words that express certainty, and by reminding social and religious rules. Thus, the illocutionary power of the definitive illocutionary words in folk songs was established from the world to the word, and the cultural transmission of folk songs has been supported. Directive illocutions in Rumelian folk songs are formed around the desire to reunite individuals with their beloved and their homeland. When Rumelian folk songs are examined in terms of prescriptive illocutions, sometimes the speaker demands responsibility with the desire to reunite with a beloved. Sometimes the speaker sees the reason for not being able to reunite with their beloved as others or due to fate and transfers the responsibility to other facts or subjects. Expressive illocutionary acts are formed around longing for the beloved and the homeland, and statements are formed around the beloved who they indeed reunited with or not. This situation implies that folk songs provide sociological and psychological data about the past in addition to cultural transmission. In line with the obtained findings, it is possible that Rumelian folk songs create an institutional phenomenon because they reflect cultural reality. Rumelian folk songs turn into perlocution and carry performative purposes such as the addressee coding their feelings of longing and yearning stemming from not being able to reunite with their beloved and their homeland and conveying social and religious rules.
