Illocution of Rumeli Folk Songs

Folk songs based on human experiences; are oral cultural elements that passed down from generation to generation. These cultural elements contribute to the formation of a cultural memory sand to cultural continuity. When the relationship between language and thought in the formation of cultural memory is examined, it is possible to say that folk songs can create a change in actual knowledge. This study was originated with the assumption that folk songs, which are a product of common linguistic behavior as a carrier of culture, have performative functions. Reveal these functions, Austin and later, Searle’s “speech act theory”, which adopts the understanding that making a sentence or constructing a phenomenon requires performing a function under certain conditions, was used as the analysis method. The starting point of the theory is that; ; it is thought that language does not perform its function independently in society, that cultural consensus is achieved by fulfilling this function, and that at the same time, information exchange can be created in the world of mind along with the universe of discourse. The language data in the study consists of Rumelian folk songs. The aim of the study is to determine the universe of discourse, the purposes for which the folk songs were created, and the functions they serve, assuming that Rumelian folk songs are memory transmitters. According to the findings, that Rumelian folk songs create an institutional phenomenon because they reflect cultural reality, encode the addressee’s feelings of longing and yearning stemming from not being able to reunite with their beloved and their homeland and carry performative purposes such as transferring social and religious rules.