Natural Versification in French and German counting-out rhymes
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Andreas Dufter
Abstract
Nursery rhymes have frequently been regarded as a testing ground for hypotheses concerning metrical and prosodic unmarkedness. The recurrence of tetrametric patterns and the unmarkedness of binary feet, for example, have been interpreted as a universal of child(-directed) verse, and of folk verse in general. According to other approaches, however, nursery rhymes as part of poetic folklore emerge on the basis of language-specific prosody in the characteristic ways of Natural Versification. In our contribution we have analyzed corpora of French and German counting-out rhymes. In French, both lines containing ternary alternation and lines with more than four beats are of marginal frequency. By contrast, stress clash as well as shorter lines occur, albeit typically with nonce items. By analyzing Standard German as well as dialectal German data, we have investigated the impact of some varieties of German on metrical patterns. Unlike French, almost one third of the German counting-out rhymes have ternary feet; in a number of cases, ternarity is even enhanced by the use of nonce items. Interestingly, German nursery rhymes regularly show a stress clash pattern at the end of lines with a final reduced syllable. We suggest that this pattern is best understood as a historical residue. On the basis of cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal comparisons, we conclude with a discussion of the relative importance of markedness, naturalness, poetic traditions, and text-pragmatic factors.
Abstract
Nursery rhymes have frequently been regarded as a testing ground for hypotheses concerning metrical and prosodic unmarkedness. The recurrence of tetrametric patterns and the unmarkedness of binary feet, for example, have been interpreted as a universal of child(-directed) verse, and of folk verse in general. According to other approaches, however, nursery rhymes as part of poetic folklore emerge on the basis of language-specific prosody in the characteristic ways of Natural Versification. In our contribution we have analyzed corpora of French and German counting-out rhymes. In French, both lines containing ternary alternation and lines with more than four beats are of marginal frequency. By contrast, stress clash as well as shorter lines occur, albeit typically with nonce items. By analyzing Standard German as well as dialectal German data, we have investigated the impact of some varieties of German on metrical patterns. Unlike French, almost one third of the German counting-out rhymes have ternary feet; in a number of cases, ternarity is even enhanced by the use of nonce items. Interestingly, German nursery rhymes regularly show a stress clash pattern at the end of lines with a final reduced syllable. We suggest that this pattern is best understood as a historical residue. On the basis of cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal comparisons, we conclude with a discussion of the relative importance of markedness, naturalness, poetic traditions, and text-pragmatic factors.
Chapters in this book
- 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
Chapters in this book
- 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
