台灣歌仔戲音樂源自民間歌謠及說唱，在歌仔戲形成的初期，許多歌謠和說唱的內容連詞帶曲一併為歌仔戲所吸收、成為戲劇性的唱詞和曲調，這使得歌仔戲在音樂和語言表現上，有著濃厚的「民歌」色彩。本文希望藉由「歌仔」到「歌仔戲」的傳承，探討民歌「口語化」、「形象化」、「比興風格」等方面的特色對於歌仔戲唱詞發展上的影響；其次藉由「程式性」的唱詞在「活戲」表演中的建立過程，來探討台灣歌仔戲唱詞在「口傳」的途徑中所形成的表現特徵。 當歌仔戲的民間性特徵被充分的重視之後，面對其他劇種的發展共性，期待能在「書同文」的潮流之下，更準確認識歌仔戲「方言文化」的價值所在。

The music of Taiwanese Opera originated from folk songs and oral performances. At its formative stage, Taiwanese Opera absorbed the lyrics and music in the folk songs and narrative in the oral tradition, and developed into dramatic lyrics and tunes. As a result of this particular attribute, Taiwanese Opera still contains strong traits of the folk-song tradition. This paper discusses, first, the effects of three characteristics, a continuation from ‘folk songs’(歌仔) to ‘Taiwanese Opera’(歌仔戲)--‘colloquialisation’, ‘mobilising concrete and situational imageries’, and ‘metaphoric and metanymic associations’--on the development of lyrics of Taiwanese Opera. Second, through discussing the mobilizing the formulaic expressions in Taiwanese Opera, an improvising genre by nature, this paper demonstrates the special expressive modes formed in the process of ‘oral transmitting’ the lyrics of Taiwanese Opera. This paper pins points the value of the characteristics of folk traditions preserved in Taiwanese Opera in the trend of literalising oral tradition (recording dialect cultures in Mandarin Chinese). In recognizing the value of dialect cultures embodied by Taiwanese Opera, we will be able to preserve and develop an art that expresses our life-experience.