RELATED TERMS:
-Of, or relating to the relationship between units in a construction or sequence.
-A ‘storyboard’ that unfolds in space and time.
–Syntagmatic structure is “the mode of time-awareness which listeners are placed” such as ‘[narrative’, ‘epic’, or ‘lyrical’.
A Syntagma is one syntactic or syntagmatic element. Narrative structures feature a realistic temporal flow guided by tension and relaxation, privilege difference, and “as diegesis, songs speak to or address us by organizing a particular stretch of time into a conscious experience, and an experience of consciousness” (Cubitt 1984, p.216).
Epic structures tend to the opposite, privileging repetition, creating a mythic state of recurrence, and “emptying out” the subject (ibid, p.216-17).
Lyrical structures lie in between and feature symmetrical open/closed andbinary forms. (Middleton 1990, p.251 and 217)