Abstract
This paper studies lyrics and their characteristics in comparison with prototypical spoken and written texts. It is focused on the characteristics of situations (presence/absence of recipient, possibility of feedback, (non)public, (un)official), stylistic characteristics (spoken/written, familiar/formal, dialogue/monologue, subjective/objective, complexity of theme, functional style etc.), and language characteristics (syntax, lexicon, morfology, phonetics).
Some properties of lyrics are exemplified. This paper shows that lyrics are distinguished by a specific combination of characteristics.