Discourse patterns of community construal in the text type of funeral valediction

Abstract

Funeral valediction is a special text type which helps the social-cognitive process of accepting and getting over a loved one’s death. Primarily written by a cantor but based on the expectations of the community, each poem can be a realisation of a pattern of the text type including its features but integrating personal details of the deceased into it as well.

In this paper I show different ways of construing social networks, especially family relationships in three communities. I present the members of the community as participants in the discourse of the farewell ceremony and as characters in the scenes made accessible by the language expressions through 110 analysed poems collected systematically by folklorists from different regions (Csanytelek, Felsőnyék and Dél-Gömör). I use a complex methodology following a basic principle of pragmatics in which sociolinguistics can be fruitfully applied in functional cognitive linguistic research. The present study shows certain connections between the vantage point and the role within the family highlighting general patterns and characteristics of it in each community.