In this paper, I would like to discuss how formulaic language can be understood in the light of Walter Ong’s theory of oral culture and Daniel Dennett’s 2006 concept of memes.

As empirical example, I use a corpus of 3.500 nationalistic songs from Norway, Sweden and Swedish-speaking Finland, spanning the years 1770 to 1920. These song lyrics demonstrate the establishment and replication of numerous set expressions, tropes and clichés within a specific ideological context. This ”formulaic language of nationalism” encompasses recurring rhymes (e.g., land – hand – strand [Sw. shore]), central concepts (”the people”, ”freedom”, ”honour”), and themes (e.g., the nation as a family of fathers, a mother/virgin country, and her sons/lovers). These elements are still distinctly recognizable in contemporary nationalist discourse across the Western world.

According to Walter Ong, formulaic language functions as a mnemonic aid in oral cultures – indeed, the only way of transmitting information in a traditional society is to ”think thoughts that can be remembered”. Daniel Dennett, in his work Breaking the Spell (2006), builds upon this concept (although he does not directly reference Ong). Dennett suggests that easily memorisable words and actions might even accumulate more characteristics that promote replication, in effect mimicking natural selection. I propose that our understanding of formulaic language, not only within the realm of nationalist rhetoric but in a broader context, can be improved by considering the ”mechanistic” explanations put forth by Ong and Dennett.