Ideology in text: the fenhedor persona in Galician–Portuguese love songs of King D. Dinis

Abstract

Critical Linguistics studies have been increasingly successful in evincing how contextual dimentions shape and model texts. In this sense, Functional Linguistics research has turned out to be paramount for the study of ars poetica. From this tradition, the Galician–Portuguese songbooks are corpora of proven importance for the understanding of our contemporary culture. In this sense, this paper aims to arrive at a thorough understanding of the complexities at issue for the fenhedor poetic persona in the Galician–Portuguese songs of love of King D. Dinis in his attempt to express his feelings to his beloved lady without violating the rigid principles that governed the court of love by the time. The theoretical-methodological frameworks of the Systemic-Functional Linguistics and the principles of Logogenesis and Resonance are pivotal to developing a critical analysis capable of identifying the ideology in the text.

Keywords:

• ideology
• Galician–Portuguese songs
• Systemic-Functional Linguistics
• King D. Dinis
• fenhedor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 A complete all-encompassed study about Ideational metafunction can be obtained in Halliday (1994), Thompson (1996), and Halliday & Mathiessen (2004).

2 Paraphrases in English are in footnotes.

3 NLS – The National Library Songbook.

4 Paraphrase: Beloved lady of a great beautiful / heart, want you feel pity / for me, sinner, who wants you / better than me; but I’m certain / that you want me worse (than) anything else / but, lady, I want all the good (things) for you / As much as (I) can, and as hidden / as I can; and I know white flower / that such love does not give you flowers / the way I have for you; but I’m certain / that you want me worse (than) anything else / but, lady, I want all the good (things) for you / As much as I can; and the great lover / Tristan (,) I know (that) he didn’t love Isolde / the way I love you, I know that for sure / and with everything I know, misfortune, / that you want me worse (than) anything else / but, lady, I want all the good (things) for you / As much as I can; and everything comes / to me, poor man (,) that lost his mind.

5 Paraphrase: Love made me to love.

6 Paraphrase: for God, Lord, it hurts a lot to me.

7 Paraphrase: however Lord wanted (it)

8 Paraphrase: And God wants to revenge this way, /As it pleases you, against me.

9 Paraphrase: But to me you well know/The bad you makes me.

10 Paraphrase: because I’ve been so poor. VS – Vatican Songbook.

11 Paraphrase: (He) revenges greatly on me for you.

12 Paraphrase: That woman made me love (noun).

13 Paraphrase: but I can’t do anything.