Language and Literary Structure: The Linguistic Analysis of Form in Verse and Narrative

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Note on texts used......Page 11
Abbreviations......Page 12
1.1 What is literary form?......Page 13
Implied form, explicit form and generated metrical form......Page 14
Metricality......Page 16
1.2 Invariant facts about the iambic pentameter line......Page 17
1.3 There are ten metrified syllables in the iambic pentameter line......Page 19
1.4 The placement of stressed syllables in polysyllabic words......Page 23
1.5 How to count up to ten......Page 25
1.6 The placement of polysyllables......Page 29
Metrical rules for iambic lines of different lengths......Page 32
Metrical rules for iambic lines with odd numbers of syllables......Page 34
Trochaic metres......Page 35
Anapaestic metre......Page 36
Loose iambic metre......Page 38
A loose trochaic metre: imitation ‘quantitative dactylic hexameter’......Page 42
1.9 Generative metrics......Page 44
Line-initial trochaic inversion involving polysyllables......Page 46
‘Trochaic inversion’ involving monosyllables......Page 50
Line-internal polysyllables which appear to ‘invert’......Page 51
Variable placement of stress or line-internal trochaic inversion?......Page 52
2.2 Projection and non-projection......Page 53
Non-projection is not the same as non-pronunciation......Page 54
Prescriptions for performance......Page 56
How to deal with optionality......Page 58
Summary......Page 59
2.3 Why counting is fundamental to metre......Page 60
An example from Welsh......Page 63
2.4 Periodicity......Page 65
2.5 Summary......Page 68
3.1 Being a sonnet......Page 69
3.2 The relation between components of literary form: conditionals......Page 71
3.3 Relevance Theory and thoughts about literary form......Page 72
Modus Ponens......Page 73
Strength......Page 74
Literary form is derived inferentially......Page 75
Where thoughts come from......Page 76
Explicatures......Page 78
Weak implicature and aesthetic experience......Page 80
3.4 Conflicting conclusions......Page 81
3.5 Interpretive use and approximation to a pattern......Page 83
Fourteen lines......Page 86
Explicit naming of the poem as ‘sonnet’......Page 90
The rhyme scheme......Page 92
Implied form in ‘perfect’ sonnets......Page 94
The sonnet as a distinct text......Page 95
3.7 The communication of literary form......Page 96
3.8 Summary......Page 98
Explanatory gaps......Page 100
The communication of iambic pentameter......Page 102
Trochaic inversion......Page 104
‘Natural speech rhythms’......Page 105
Other explicatures......Page 108
Summary: complexity and explicatures......Page 112
Irregularities involving monosyllables......Page 113
‘Sultán’ in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam......Page 115
Polysyllables which violate the metrical rules......Page 117
Why rising/falling ambiguities are possible......Page 120
Why binary/ternary ambiguities are possible......Page 130
The imitation of musical rhythm......Page 135
The imitation of sapphics......Page 138
The imitation of rhythm in a syllable-counting text......Page 142
The imitation of metre in a non-metrical text......Page 143
4.5 'Tension'......Page 144
4.6 Summary......Page 146
5.1 Lineation is implied......Page 148
The strength of visual evidence......Page 149
Texts which are ‘both verse and prose’......Page 151
Lineation and generated metrical form......Page 153
5.2 Evidence for the line......Page 155
Linguistic constituent boundaries and the line boundary......Page 157
Mid-line boundaries which resemble end-of-line boundaries......Page 161
Metre and rhythm......Page 164
Metre in texts with varying length lines......Page 167
Line-initial and line-final words......Page 168
Putting the evidence together......Page 172
Summary......Page 175
5.3 One line or two?......Page 176
Layout as one line or two......Page 179
Metrical considerations......Page 180
Systematic word boundary placement in the middle of the long line......Page 182
Emergent conditionals: alliteration as a line-splitting device......Page 183
Line-pairs as superlong lines......Page 184
5.4 Loose beginning and strict ending......Page 185
The looseness of the final syllable......Page 187
Explaining asymmetries......Page 188
5.5 Summary......Page 189
Line-grouping is unambiguously implied by layout and other means Love......Page 190
Line-grouping is unambiguously implied without being evidenced by layout......Page 192
Line-grouping is implied, and is ambiguous......Page 193
6.2 Conventional evidence for the line-group boundaries......Page 197
Linguistic boundaries and line-group boundaries......Page 198
A note on sequence and evidence from layout......Page 201
Metre......Page 203
Rhyme schemes......Page 206
Summary......Page 207
6.3 Line-groups, counting and grids......Page 208
Compound grids......Page 214
6.4 Lineation and line-grouping in oral narratives......Page 215
Other kinds of implied form in narratives......Page 221
Do narratives have generated form?......Page 224
6.5 Summary......Page 226
7 Complexity......Page 227
Bibliography......Page 231
Subject index......Page 239
Index of poets cited......Page 241