Repetition and variation in a Finnish music-related discourse: A case study

Among the different ways to approach discourse-structuring patterns, semantic basic figures (Grundfiguren in German) are a versatile tool that helps to understand the semantic framework of discourses. Topoi, metaphors, and other argumentative and figurative elements can be traced back to such basic concepts. My essay identifies and analyses repetitions and variations in the realisation of two such figures – ‘difficulty’ and ‘austerity’ – in a corpus of concert reviews of Jean Sibelius’ Fourth Symphony. I show how these concepts are first established and how they can be found in both verbatim repetitions and lexical and constructional variations over a period spanning several decades. My approach is based on the observation that a constantly varied repetition of certain patterns and similarly structured semantic frames is effective in coining the image of an artwork in public discourse and reaching an intersubjective understanding of its meaning and content. This applies all the more when those patterns are linked to previously established cultural (auto-)stereotypes.