Polyfactoriality as a Defining Criterion of Formulaic Speech 

Abstract

Starting from the observation that the criteria generally applied to the definition of formulaic speech – polylexicality, (relative) stability and idiomaticity – no longer reflect the current state-of-the-art insights into the nature of prefabricated speech productions (and understanding), the present paper discusses a revised vision of formulaicity, taking the pivotal defining criterion of polyfactoriality as its basis. This notion permits taking into account segmental, prosodic, corporal, contextual and situational elements in order to define an utterance or one of its units as being formulaic, even when it consists of one lexical item only. This notion also permits considerably extending the scope of formulaic communicative manifestations, ranging from monolexical routine formulae via sentence-based proverbs to formulaic texts and even to communicative events. As a hyperonym, polyfactoriality is likewise characterized by relative stability through its smallest common formulaic denominator, its semantic non-compositionality (due to its idiomatic footprint), and its multimodal character. Based on these reflections, a revised definition of the notion of formulaic sequence will be put forward.