Orality

Cosmic Thoughts was reading Ong and reflecting...

I am still working through Ong and applying his work to Randolph's. And the thing that drives me to distraction is that I *really* need to see Randolph's transcripts. I need to see *exactly* what his informants said... I need to *hear* the recordings (when they exist). For far too many of the stories, Randolph relies on his memory and his own mid-west dialect instead of what the informants actually said.

So how can I know if they are copious or use formulaic language???