This article presents the design of an interoperable database for digital documentation of oral discourse genres in multiple languages. Focussing on stylistic form and cultural specificity of artistic expression, the categories of study that serve as data fields build on contextual and functional approaches to verbal art performance. The database is part of a larger project known as VOVA (VOcal and Verbal Arts archives) that seeks to create digital tools for editing and annotating stylized oral discourse for purposes of comparative study of oral traditions and the preservation of endangered languages. Detailed descriptions of fields and numerous examples of the type of data solicited by VOVA, taken from leading scholarship in the field, help to clarify the scientific aims of the project. Search modes for consulting the database are also provided. Relations between the symbol-making and symbol-using activities of language use, text editing, and the digital humanities are discussed in light of the anthropological and linguistic research that will serve as a basis for a systematic study of stylistics in speech.

Text available on : https://www.academia.edu/2487281/Digital_Documentation_of_Oral_Discourse_Genres .