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The theory of oral-formulaic composition originated in the scholarly study of epic poetry, being developed in the second quarter of the twentieth century. It seeks to explain two related issues: # the process which enables oral poets to improvise poetry; and # why orally improvised poetry has the characteristics it does. The key idea of the theory is poets have a store of formulas (a formula being 'an expression that is regularly used, under the same metrical conditions, to express a particular essential idea')〔Milman Parry, ''L’epithèt traditionnelle dans Homère'' (Paris, 1928), p. 16; cf. Albert B. Lord, ''The singer of tales'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 4〕 and that by linking these in conventionalised ways, they can rapidly compose verse. In the hands of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, this approach transformed the study of ancient and medieval poetry, and oral poetry generally. The main exponent and developer of their approaches was John Miles Foley. ==Homeric verse as a source of examples== In Homeric verse, a phrase like ''eos rhododaktylos'' ("rosy fingered dawn") or ''oinops pontos'' ("winedark sea") occupies a certain metrical pattern that fits, in modular fashion, into the six-colon Greek hexameter, and aids the ''aoidos'' or bard in extempore composition. Moreover, phrases of this type would be subject to internal substitutions and adaptations, permitting flexibility in response to narrative and grammatical needs: ''podas okus axilleus'' ("swift footed Achilles") is metrically equivalent to ''koruthaiolos ektor'' ("glancing-helmed Hector"). Formulae could also be combined into ''type-scenes'', longer, conventionalised depictions of generic actions in epic, such as the steps taken to arm oneself or to prepare a ship for sea. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oral-formulaic composition」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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