Textsetting as constraint conflict
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Bruce Hayes
Abstract
Halle & Lerdahl (1993) lay out the problem of textsetting: when singers encounter a novel stanza for a song they know, they have consistent intuitions about where the syllables of each line should be aligned in time when the new stanza is sung. In other words, people have a productive ability for setting text to rhythm. Halle & Lerdahl offer the first explicit proposal for modeling this ability. The present paper likewise proposes a formal model of textsetting, but using a different theoretical approach. I argue that many well-formed textsettings represent the best possible resolution between conflicting metrical principles. These involve: (a) matching of stress to rhythmically strong position; (b) avoidance of long lapses (sequences where no syllable is initiated); (c) avoidance of extreme syllable compression; and (d) alignment of phonological phrase boundaries with line boundaries. A good textsetting often must sacrifice perfect realization of one of these goals in order to satisfy another goal that takes higher priority. For instance, many lines place stressed syllables in weaker rhythmic positions, and stressless syllables in stronger positions, in order to avoid a long syllable lapse, thus sacrificing (a) to satisfy (b). I formalize this approach under Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993/2004). Using data from Hayes & Kaun (1996), in which native English speakers spontaneously set many lines of verse, I show that an approach based on constraint conflict offers considerable improvement in the accuracy with which the native speakers’ settings are predicted.
Abstract
Halle & Lerdahl (1993) lay out the problem of textsetting: when singers encounter a novel stanza for a song they know, they have consistent intuitions about where the syllables of each line should be aligned in time when the new stanza is sung. In other words, people have a productive ability for setting text to rhythm. Halle & Lerdahl offer the first explicit proposal for modeling this ability. The present paper likewise proposes a formal model of textsetting, but using a different theoretical approach. I argue that many well-formed textsettings represent the best possible resolution between conflicting metrical principles. These involve: (a) matching of stress to rhythmically strong position; (b) avoidance of long lapses (sequences where no syllable is initiated); (c) avoidance of extreme syllable compression; and (d) alignment of phonological phrase boundaries with line boundaries. A good textsetting often must sacrifice perfect realization of one of these goals in order to satisfy another goal that takes higher priority. For instance, many lines place stressed syllables in weaker rhythmic positions, and stressless syllables in stronger positions, in order to avoid a long syllable lapse, thus sacrificing (a) to satisfy (b). I formalize this approach under Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993/2004). Using data from Hayes & Kaun (1996), in which native English speakers spontaneously set many lines of verse, I show that an approach based on constraint conflict offers considerable improvement in the accuracy with which the native speakers’ settings are predicted.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Acknowledgments xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Isochronous metrics
- Textsetting as constraint conflict 43
- Comparing musical textsetting in French and in English songs 63
- Bavarian Zwiefache 79
- Natural Versification in French and German counting-out rhymes 101
- Minimal chronometric forms 123
- Symmetry and children’s poetry in sign languages 143
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Part II. Prosodic metrics
- Pairs and triplets 167
- Generative linguistics and Arabic metrics 193
- On the meter of Middle English alliterative verse 209
- The Russian Auden and the Russianness of Auden 229
- Towards a universal definition of the caesura 247
- Metrical alignment 267
- Rephrasing line-end restrictions 287
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Part III. Para-metrical phenomena
- Pif paf poof 307
- The phonology of elision and metrical figures in Italian versification 325
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Part IV. Macrostructural metrics
- Convention and parody in the rhyming of Tristan Corbière 337
- The metrics of Sephardic song 355
- A rule of metrical uniformity in old Hungarian poetry 371
- Metrical structure of the European sonnet 385
- Persons index 403
- Languages index 411
- Subjects index 415
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Acknowledgments xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Isochronous metrics
- Textsetting as constraint conflict 43
- Comparing musical textsetting in French and in English songs 63
- Bavarian Zwiefache 79
- Natural Versification in French and German counting-out rhymes 101
- Minimal chronometric forms 123
- Symmetry and children’s poetry in sign languages 143
-
Part II. Prosodic metrics
- Pairs and triplets 167
- Generative linguistics and Arabic metrics 193
- On the meter of Middle English alliterative verse 209
- The Russian Auden and the Russianness of Auden 229
- Towards a universal definition of the caesura 247
- Metrical alignment 267
- Rephrasing line-end restrictions 287
-
Part III. Para-metrical phenomena
- Pif paf poof 307
- The phonology of elision and metrical figures in Italian versification 325
-
Part IV. Macrostructural metrics
- Convention and parody in the rhyming of Tristan Corbière 337
- The metrics of Sephardic song 355
- A rule of metrical uniformity in old Hungarian poetry 371
- Metrical structure of the European sonnet 385
- Persons index 403
- Languages index 411
- Subjects index 415
