A description of the verbal and nonverbal characteristics of the language of stock auctioneers and a comparison with oral poetry show that these auctioneers use an oral formulaic technique. It is suggested that this technique is a response to performance constraints which place a heavy load on short term memory. This hypothesis accounts for features of stock auction speech which are not recognized as characteristically oral formulaic as well as those which are. It also sheds light on two problems that have exercised students of oral literature: the effect of literacy and the role of memorization. These findings support the view that the difference between traditional oral formulaic and ordinary spoken language is one of degree, not kind. (Oral literature, register, stylistics, situational constraints, psychological constraints, formulae)

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