(fairly) new (but unlisted) "benefits"

[Jonathan Lighter]

In the old days, they used to talk about the "voice" of or in the poem.

JL

On Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 12:00 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: (fairly) new (but unlisted) "benefits"
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>
> At 8/5/2011 11:51 AM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> >On Fri, Aug 05, 2011 at 11:44:34AM -0400, Laurence Horn wrote:
> > >
> > > *Is there a better term for the first-person protagonist of a song?
> > > It's not necessarily "the singer", "the songwriter", or the person
> > > whose point of view is represented (which may be a third/second
> > > person). Talk about lexical gaps!
> >
> >I'd go with "narrator", "speaker", or in some contexts "persona".
>
> I don't think the literary critics have come up with anything better,
> considering the many uses I see of "narrator".
>
>
> >Jesse Sheidlower
> >OED
> >
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