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Generative linguistics and Arabic metrics

  • Bruno Paoli
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Towards a Typology of Poetic Forms
This chapter is in the book Towards a Typology of Poetic Forms

Abstract

The classical theory of Arabic metrics has been reinterpreted numerous times in a variety of theoretical frameworks, notable among them Metrical Phonology (Prince 1989 & Schuh 1996) and Optimality Theory (Golston & Riad 1991), which we briefly examine to show that they do not permit an adequate account of the structure of Arabic verse-patterns. The analyses that have been proposed, by simply reinterpreting classical analyses, suffer from the same failings as the classical theory, whose descriptive adequacy (or inadequacy) is never discussed. To these failings we can add the problems inherent in the basic presuppositions of these theories (hierarchical organisation of meter, constituency and, above all, binarity), whose relevance (their explanatory power) and universality deserve to be seriously questioned. Finally, it is shown that a detailed descriptive analysis of actual instances of classical verse-patterns in terms of free and fixed metrical positions reveals a system which relies on principles and constraints that consistently depart from the classical framework and should thus serve as the basis for future analyses of Arabic meter.

Abstract

The classical theory of Arabic metrics has been reinterpreted numerous times in a variety of theoretical frameworks, notable among them Metrical Phonology (Prince 1989 & Schuh 1996) and Optimality Theory (Golston & Riad 1991), which we briefly examine to show that they do not permit an adequate account of the structure of Arabic verse-patterns. The analyses that have been proposed, by simply reinterpreting classical analyses, suffer from the same failings as the classical theory, whose descriptive adequacy (or inadequacy) is never discussed. To these failings we can add the problems inherent in the basic presuppositions of these theories (hierarchical organisation of meter, constituency and, above all, binarity), whose relevance (their explanatory power) and universality deserve to be seriously questioned. Finally, it is shown that a detailed descriptive analysis of actual instances of classical verse-patterns in terms of free and fixed metrical positions reveals a system which relies on principles and constraints that consistently depart from the classical framework and should thus serve as the basis for future analyses of Arabic meter.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors vii
  4. Acknowledgments xiii
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Isochronous metrics
  7. Textsetting as constraint conflict 43
  8. Comparing musical textsetting in French and in English songs 63
  9. Bavarian Zwiefache 79
  10. Natural Versification in French and German counting-out rhymes 101
  11. Minimal chronometric forms 123
  12. Symmetry and children’s poetry in sign languages 143
  13. Part II. Prosodic metrics
  14. Pairs and triplets 167
  15. Generative linguistics and Arabic metrics 193
  16. On the meter of Middle English alliterative verse 209
  17. The Russian Auden and the Russianness of Auden 229
  18. Towards a universal definition of the caesura 247
  19. Metrical alignment 267
  20. Rephrasing line-end restrictions 287
  21. Part III. Para-metrical phenomena
  22. Pif paf poof 307
  23. The phonology of elision and metrical figures in Italian versification 325
  24. Part IV. Macrostructural metrics
  25. Convention and parody in the rhyming of Tristan Corbière 337
  26. The metrics of Sephardic song 355
  27. A rule of metrical uniformity in old Hungarian poetry 371
  28. Metrical structure of the European sonnet 385
  29. Persons index 403
  30. Languages index 411
  31. Subjects index 415
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.2.09pao

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors vii
  4. Acknowledgments xiii
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Isochronous metrics
  7. Textsetting as constraint conflict 43
  8. Comparing musical textsetting in French and in English songs 63
  9. Bavarian Zwiefache 79
  10. Natural Versification in French and German counting-out rhymes 101
  11. Minimal chronometric forms 123
  12. Symmetry and children’s poetry in sign languages 143
  13. Part II. Prosodic metrics
  14. Pairs and triplets 167
  15. Generative linguistics and Arabic metrics 193
  16. On the meter of Middle English alliterative verse 209
  17. The Russian Auden and the Russianness of Auden 229
  18. Towards a universal definition of the caesura 247
  19. Metrical alignment 267
  20. Rephrasing line-end restrictions 287
  21. Part III. Para-metrical phenomena
  22. Pif paf poof 307
  23. The phonology of elision and metrical figures in Italian versification 325
  24. Part IV. Macrostructural metrics
  25. Convention and parody in the rhyming of Tristan Corbière 337
  26. The metrics of Sephardic song 355
  27. A rule of metrical uniformity in old Hungarian poetry 371
  28. Metrical structure of the European sonnet 385
  29. Persons index 403
  30. Languages index 411
  31. Subjects index 415
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