Startseite Linguistik & Semiotik On the meter of Middle English alliterative verse
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On the meter of Middle English alliterative verse

  • Donka Minkova
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Towards a Typology of Poetic Forms
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Towards a Typology of Poetic Forms

Abstract

The meter of a large body of alliterative verse texts composed in English in the fourteenth century appears so irregular that it has defied formalization. Nevertheless, certain prosodic patterns recur with great frequency while others are rare or unattested; this invites further inquiry into the verse design. The first part of this paper lays out some of the received descriptions and interpretations of that particular metrical tradition, pointing out some philological problems that lead to circularity in accounting for the interplay between meter and language. The second part of the paper proposes an analysis of the most frequent b-verse attestations in terms of optimality-theoretic constraints. The application of OT to the account of this type of meter aligns it with the typology of other English verse forms and allows a discussion of continuity in terms of non-local properties. The paper ends with an outline of further research questions.

Abstract

The meter of a large body of alliterative verse texts composed in English in the fourteenth century appears so irregular that it has defied formalization. Nevertheless, certain prosodic patterns recur with great frequency while others are rare or unattested; this invites further inquiry into the verse design. The first part of this paper lays out some of the received descriptions and interpretations of that particular metrical tradition, pointing out some philological problems that lead to circularity in accounting for the interplay between meter and language. The second part of the paper proposes an analysis of the most frequent b-verse attestations in terms of optimality-theoretic constraints. The application of OT to the account of this type of meter aligns it with the typology of other English verse forms and allows a discussion of continuity in terms of non-local properties. The paper ends with an outline of further research questions.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  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.2.10min

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  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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Heruntergeladen am 20.12.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/lfab.2.10min/pdf?lang=de
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