That definition, as stated, seems to allow only
verbatim repetitions of fixed phrases:
> a sequence, continuous or discontinuous, of words or
> other elements, which is, or appears to be, prefabricated:
> that is, stored and retrieved whole from memory at the
> time of use, rather than being subject to generation or
> analysis by the language grammar.
> (Wray, 2002:9).
The literature on formulaic elements in oral poetry
normally allows substitution of words with the same
prosodic patterns and the same syntactic category.
Allowing substitutions gives you a template-style of
grammar, which is much richer than fixed phrases, yet
more restricted than even a finite-state grammar.
John Sowa
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