Being the dork that I am I took several classes in grad school about oral cultures and the transmission of knowledge. I've always been fascinated by non-literate cultures because I learn best through reading. I often recall things I've learned by picturing the words on the page, and I've rarely been able to follow a story or game just by listening. But in the past year, as I've been working office jobs, I've started to spend hours a day listening to public radio, and I believe my listening comprehension skills have really developed. I have recently begun to notice the linguistic clues of public radio and the ways in which public radio is an oral culture, not just the oral component of a written culture. The best example of this is the tags that public figures are given. One of my old professors studied oral epic poetry. He said that the poems were never performed in exactly the same way. But somehow the performer could re-create the poem by knowing the basic story. The difficult thing is doing improv in the right rhyme and meter. One trick for this was to always use the same tag for a character-- something like "blue-eyed Odysseus." Although I don't usually notice any emphasis on rhyme or meter in public radio, these tags are still used. And they help the listener (especially those of us who don't listen well) by cue-ing us in for what we are about to hear. Sometimes these tags are job tittles (e.g., National Security Advisor or Iraqi Prime Minister). But often the tags are descriptive. I'll be you can't hear the following tags without filling in the name blanks: "Rising Star ___ ____" and "Rebel Cleric ____ ____"

Has anyone else noticed this? Have a favorite tag?