English Verse: Theory and history [Translated from Russian. Reprint 2021] 9783112419427, 9783112419410

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DE PROPRIETATIBUS LITTERARUM edenda curat C.H. V A N SCHOONEVELD

Indiana University Series Practica

117

ENGLISH VERSE Theory and History

by

Marina Tarlinskaja Translated from Russian

1976 MOUTON THE HAGUE • PARIS

© Copyright 1976 in The Netherlands Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers

ISBN 90 279 3295 6

Printed in The Netherlands

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword Introduction Chapter 1. Verse and Syllable 1. The method "from verse to language" 2. The syllable and syllabication 3. The problem of "verse and syllable" 4. The syllabic structure of words of the type Cardinal, murderer, insolent 5. The syllabic function of sonorants 6. The syllabic function of triphthongs Chapter 2. Verse and Word Stress 1. The problem of Middle English word stress 2. The method of investigation 3. The total number of "noncorrespondences" between word stress and ictus in the verse 4. The distribution of native-English and French loan words within the line 5. The morphological and sound features of native-English "noncorrespondences" 6. Conclusions Chapter 3. Verse and Phrasal Stress 1. The rhythmical variation of phrasal stress 2. The problem of the accentual interpretation of monosyllables in verse 3. The general accentual differentiation of monosyllables in verse: the method of metrical indices 4. The metrical features of adjectives and adverbs and their phrasal stress in verse 5. The accentual categories of monosyllables 6. The degree of phrasal stress. A system for the transcription of the verse rhythm Chapter 4. The Formation of English Syllabo-Tonic Poetry 1. The Problem

VIII 1 17 17 18 20 21 30 34 40 40 45 46 50 53 56 60 60 63 66 71 76 78 84 84

vi 2. The reasons for the loss of alliteration and the emergence of rhymed verse 3. Identifying the meter of 13th 14th century English rhymed verse 4. The rhythmical features of 1 3 t h - 1 4 t h century English rhymed verse 5. Conclusions Chapter 5. A Typology of English Four-Ictic Verse 1. Introduction 2. The iambic tetrameter A. The stress profile of the lines B. "Noniambic" combinations of syllables C. The rhythmical structure of the lines 3. The 19th century trochaic tetrameter 4. The dol'nik I. The four-ictic dol'nik A. The syllabic structure B. The accentual structure II. The three-ictic dol'nik A. The syllabic structure B. The accentual structure III. Conclusions 5. The ternary syllabo-tonic meter A. The types of anacrusis B. The ictic stress C. The structure and stress of the non-ictuses D. Conclusions Chapter 6. The Nondramatic Iambic Pentameter 1. Introduction 2. The syllabic structure of the lines 3. The accentual structure of the lines A. The stress profile B. The distribution of several types of rhythmic inversion within the foot and at foot junctures C. "Noniambic" trisyllabic combinations with the central syllable on an ictus D. The rhythmical structure of the lines 4. Conclusions Chapter 7. The Dramatic Iambic Pentameter 1. Introduction 2. The syllabic structure of the lines 3. The accentual structure of the lines A. The stress profile

85 88 93 97 84 100 101 102 103 104 105 107 108 108 121 123 123 127 128 128 129 130 131 135 138 138 139 143 143 147 151 152 155 159 159 160 164 164

vii

B. The distribution of several types of inversion within the foot . . C. Inversions at foot junctures D. "Noniambic" trisyllabic combinations with the central syllable on an ictus E. The rhythmical structure of the lines 4. The evolution of line endings 5. Conclusions Chapter 8. The Transition from Iambics to Syllabics 1. The problem 2. The metrical "thresholds" of the iambic pentameter 3. The verse structure of the unknown meter 4. A model of English quasi-syllabic verse 5. Conclusions Appendices: 1. "Noncorrespondences" of word stress and ictus in German verse . 2. Differentiating the stress of monosyllables in the Russian iamb . . 3. An attempt at attributing a verse text 4. A genre differentiation of the nondramatic iambic pentameter . . . Conclusion Reference of Tables Reference of Figures Bibliography

.169 172 173 174 177 181 183 183 184 187 190 197 . 199 .201 208 .219 230 235 315 341

FOREWORD

This book is devoted to the theory and history of English verse from the 1 3 t h - 1 9 t h centuries. It presents the results of the author's work from 1963—1973, some of which has already been published in the form of journal articles. The quantitative analysis of verse structure (approximately 100,000 lines) has been made by the author, except for the analysis of several prose models of verse (Chapter 8, 4) and the genre differentiation of the iambic pentameter (Appendix 4) which were conducted by L.M. Teterina. The author would like to express her gratitude to l.R. Gal'perin, who suggested the topic of this investigation back in 1962, for his constant attention and support. The author's first efforts in this direction won the attention of V.M. ¿irmunskij. The author will always treasure her memories of his invaluable advice and conversation. The author is especially grateful to M.L. Gasparov, whose advice and friendly assistance over the years have been so instrumental to the appearance of this book. The author is grateful to K.F.Taranovsky for his interest in the work, and to James Bailey for a number of valuable comments. The author would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mouton for its interest in her investigations. M.G. TARLINSKAJA

Moscow, April, 1973

INTRODUCTION 1

The primary aim of this book is to construct an inductive theory of English verse. An inductive approach to theory (from broad analysis of verse texts — to the theory of their form) has practically never been used in the study of English verse form. The English verse study has so far developed in three directions: 1) an experimental phonetic analysis of verse rhythm; (Brown, Verrier, Snell, Scripture, Schramm, Chatman); 2) observations of certain particular phenomena of the rhythmical style of an author in his main works or selected poems, sometimes just a couple of them (König, Bridges, Robertson, Moloney, Legoui, Sprott, Robinson); 3) construction of a most general deductive theory of verse illustrated by examples, sometimes by artificial ones (Halle, Keyser and their followers). In this book, however, a theory is laid down which is based on the results of many-sided quantitative analysis of a broad text material. Before describing in some detail the problems and methods of investigation we shall define some metrical concepts and terms, not all of which are uniformly understood by scholars. Verse is a special type of speech, broken into relatively short segments (lines), each of which is also called "a verse". The opposite of verse is prose. The latter is also divided into segments: "syntagms", but in prose this segmentation is to some extent arbitrary (the same words may be united in one syntagm or classified in two different syntagms) and always corresponds to the syntactic segmentation. In poetry the segmentation is uniform and mandatory for all readers (in modern poetry this is graphically expressed; for this reason the term "line" is often synonymous with the term "verse"). Sometimes the segmentation of poetry into lines does not correspond to the syntactic segmentation. Such noncorrespondence has been termed enjambement. The main function of the verse structure is t o create a perceptible effect of rhythmic alternation between entities of the same type. The basic rhythmical entities, common to all systems of versification, are lines (verses). At this level, lines are structurally equivalent and commensurate, although their real length may vary within certain limits. Verses belong to one or another system of versification depending upon the main feature of the line which forms the basis of their commensurability.

2 In modern European poetry there are four systems of versification: 1) syllabo-tonic, whose basis of commensurability is repeated combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables; 2) tonic, whose basis of commensurability is the number of strongly stressed words in the line; 3) syllabic, whose basis of commensurability is the number of syllables per line; 4) free verse, whose basis of commensurability is the line itself. There are also transitional systems which fall between these four. The feature forming the basis of commensurability between the lines are not mutually exclusive; however, the most common feature among the lines is considered the basis of the system of versification. If all the lines containing this basic feature are on the whole identical they are termed isometric, isosyllabic, or isotonic. Three types of versification have been developed in English poetry: syllabo-tonic, tonic, and free verse. The system most developed from the 13th-19th centuries was the syllabo-tonic. The basic concept of syllabo-tonic verse is meter. If defined most generally, meter is the ordered alternation of strong and weak syllabic positions or places, abstracted from the accentual structure of a concrete verse text (or texts). The strong position is called the ictus (conventionally designated by [—] ), the weak position is called the non-ictus (conventionally designated [U] ). The strong position equals one syllable, the weak position 1-2 syllables. The ictuses are usually filled up by phonologic-' ally marked syllables (long ones as in ancient Greek or Latin verse, or stressed ones, as in English, German or Russian verse), while non-ictusses — by phonologically non-marked syllables (short or unstressed). Repeated combinations of an ictus and a non-ictus in a metrical sequence are known as feet. Neither ictuses nor feet, therefore, can be pronounced or sound. Only a concrete line may sound. It is the elements of this sounding which create the accentual verse rhythm. The concepts of meter and phrasal stress, therefore, belong to different categories. The meter of the verse is abstracted from the sum of its rhythmical (accentual) variants. The meter may be identified by scanning — an artificial reading which stresses all syllables on all the strong positions and does not stress any on the weak ones; however, it is obvious that scanning is not the meter itself, but merely one of the simpler ways of revealing it. Five meters may be distinguished, depending on the order of ictuses and non-ictuses within the foot and the numer of non-ictic syllables: binaries: the trochee [ - U l - U I—U...] , the iamb [U—lU—lU—...] , and ternaries: the dactyl [—UU I—UUl—UU...] , the amphibrach [ U - U l U - U l U - U . . . ] and the anapest [UU—lUU—lUU—...]. The length of the line in feet determines the measure of the verse, for example: the iambic pentameter, the trochaic tetrameter. The terms "measure" and "meter" are often used as synonyms. The non-ictic position preceding the first ictus is called the anacrusis.

3 English meters, especially the ternaries, are characterized by a variable anacrusis (ranging from 0-2 non-ictic syllables). A ternary meter with a variable anacrusis contains, as it were, the features of all the ternary meters. In the following example the numbers to the left of each line denote the number of syllables in the anacrusis. 0 Oh! for the veteran hearts that were wasted 1 In strife with the storm, when the battles were won 2 Then the Eagle, whose gaze in that moment was blasted, 1 Had still soai'd with eyes fix'd on victory's sun. (Byron, Napoleon's Farewell, II, 5-8).

A stress on an ictus is called ictic or metrical, on a non-ictus, non-ictic or extra-metrical. When an unstressed syllable occupies an ictus it is termed the omission of an ictic stress. The combination of an extrametrical stress with an omitted ictic stress in the same foot is called a stress shift or rhythmic inversion. We shall call this phenomenon an inversion within the foot or innerfoot inversion. The combination of an omitted ictic stress plus an extrametrical stress on the adjoining syllable of a neighbouring foot will be termed a juncture inversion. In the following four lines of iambic pentameter there are inversions within the foot in the first feet of lines one and two, a juncture inversion between the fourth and fifth feet in line one, a combination of an inversion within the second foot and a juncture inversion between the second and third feet in line three, and extrametrical stresses on the seventh and ninth positions in line four: Lithe as the glancing snake, and the club came Thundering to earth, and leapt from Rustum's hand. His breast heaved, his lips foam'd, and twice his voice Was choked with rage: at last these words broke way: (Arnold, Sohrab and Rustum, 418-419, 4 5 5 4 5 6 ) .

In syllabo-tonic meters the ictuses and non-ictuses differ according to how the syllables occupying them are stressed. If the ictus may be occupied only by strongly stressed syllables, then it is said to be obligatorily stressed (constant). Examples of accentual constants are the final ictus of the Russian binary measures and all the ictuses of the English and Russian ternaries. If a non-ictus may be filled only by unstressed syllables, then it is said to be obligatorily (constantly) unstressed, for example, the syllables following the final ictus in Russian syllabo-tonic verse. • If the ictus is normally filled by stressed syllables, but may be filled by unstressed syllables, it is termed predominantly (dominantly) stressed. If the non-ictus is normally filled by unstressed syllables, but may also be filled by stressed syllables, it is termed predominantly (dominantly) unstressed. As we

4 shall see, such deviations may affect as much as 25% of the ictuses and nonictuses in the English iambic pentameter. If certain positions in the line can be filled equally well by stressed or unstressed syllables, they are said to be arbitrarily stressed. An example of arbitrary stress would be all the ictuses, save the last, in the Russain iamb. The degree of predictability of the stress or nonstress on an ictus or a nonictus (the so-called "rhythmic expectation") is greatest when the ictuses and non-ictuses are constant, least when they are arbitrary stressed. Thus in a verse system various verse-building elements are canonized in different ways. Some of these elements in a given position are constantly present, others only predominate, still others more or less freely vary (with different tendencies). Hence, if we are out to define a verse system, we must draw a line between its constants, dominants and tendencies. However, there are many transitory phases between constants and dominants, and even more so, between dominants and tendencies. These phases are hard to single out "according to the ear". A broad use of quantitative analysis makes it possible to perceive phenomena which elude empirical observations; this analysis enables us to compare with precision closely related forms or variations of one and the same verse form in different historical periods, in different genres and with different poets; it insures objectivity of final generalizations. Metrics is, in general, one branch of philology where the application of precise methods is particularly rewarding and appropriate. This is because the basis of verse structure is the principle of rhythmic repetition: so many lines to the stanza, so many feet, or syllables, or stresses to a line, and so on. This material lends itself very easily to statistical treatment and the generalizations which can be made from such analysis. The application of precise methods is also rewarding in the sense that analysis "according to the ear" is often subjective and imprecise. The case of the average citizen who is content with the general impression that this summer is hotter than last is analogous to the dilettante who is happy with the general impression, for example, that the 18th century iamb is "stricter" than the 19th century iamb. However, just as the weatherman determines the fluctuation in temperature by using precise figures, so the metrist, in comparing 18th and 19th century verse, will choose several features which may be inventoried so as to calculate the precise difference between the metrically strict 18th century verse and the more irregular, slacker 19th century verse. Then the subjective evaluations "slacker", "less regular" and "stricter", "more regular" receive an objective scientific foundation. If the distinction between the early 18th and 19th century iambs is more or less obvious without calculations, then there are distinctions between more closely related, transitional forms which are lost without them. It is in the study of similar, transitional verse forms that precise methods are the most useful and rewarding (see the collection Ars Poetica, 1928, 8).

5 Precise methods have been widely applied in Russian metrics for quite some time. 2 The use of calculations was begun by Andrej Belyj (1910; 1929). In the works of Tomas'evskij (1923; 1929; 1959a), Sengeli (1923; I960), Taranovsky (1953; 1953-54; 1955-56; 1966a,b; 1972), Kolmogorov and Proxorov (1968), Gasparov (1965; 1966; 1967; 1974) the features of the stress rhythm and word boundaries of the Russian classical measures have been identified. The rhythmical features of the Russian non-classical meters have been elaborated by Kolmogorov (1963;1966). Kolmogorov and Proxorov (1963; 1964), Bobrov (1964a,b; 1967), Ivanov (1966; 1968), Gasparov (1963; 1967; 1968a,b, 1974). In V.M. 2irmunskij's groundbreaking work (1923), which unfortunately does not include his extensive calculations, and in a forthcoming article by Gasparov precise methods are used to describe the structure of the rhythme. Russian metrists analyze the rhythm of stresses and word boundaries in verse in comparison with linguistic and speech probability models of verse. Such a comparison allows us to ascertain: 1) which elements of the verse structure are random, conditioned by the general laws of the Russian language; 2) which elements are specific to verse as a particular speech structure; 3) which elements are characteristic of the rhythmical style of individual poets. Investigators of English verse 3 have gained their greatest successes in the experimental study of verse rhythm (Brown, 1908; Verrier, 1910; Jacob, 1917; Snell, 1918, 1918-1919; Scripture, 1921, 1922, 1924, 1928, 1929; Lanz, 1931; Chandler, 1934; Schramm, 1935; Chatman, 1965, pp. 158-183). However, the purpose of these subtle experimental studies has been to determine the physical means by which the "ictic" syllable is made prominent as the verse is read aloud (in Chatman's terminology, the ictic syllable is the one which physically stands out against the background of the surrounding syllables as the verse is read) and how this prominence is perceived by the listeners. Thus the experimental investigation of declamational variants did not help scholars delimit such cardinal concepts of metrics as meter and stress (accent) which had already been theoretically developed by Russian metrists in the 1920's (Tomasevskij, 1923, 1929; Jakobson, 1923; Tynjanov, 1924; Zirmunskij, 1925) and further refined in later works, mostly on Russian verse (Timofeev, 1931, 1958; Jakobson, 1935; Trubeckoj, 1963b (first published 1937); Taranovsky, 1953, 1953-54, 1955-56, 1966, 1972; Gasparov, 1966, 1967a,b, 1968a,b, 1974; Kolmogorov and Proxorov, 1968). Thus for Chatman (1965, 12, 97, and elsewhere) meter is a phenomenon of the same level as stress rhythm, in fact, it is only a species of the latter ("meter is a species of r h y t h m " ) while the ictus is an element of the real accentual structure of the line, the syllable which is physically made prominent among the surrounding syllables. Thus when analyzing verse Chatman speaks of such things as the "disappearance" of the ictus on an unstressed

6 syllable (p. 97, 183), the "shift" of the ictus to a different syllable (p. 147) and so on. In studies on metrical theory and in analyses of the linguistic structure of a verse text, meter is rightfully considered a phenomenon of a different order than line stresses, as a sequence abstracted from the sequence of stresses in concrete lines and forming the basis of the verse rhythm (see, for example, Lotz, 1942, 1960a,b; Wimsatt, Beardsley, 1959; Wimsatt, 1971; Levin, 1971, p. 179; Halle and Keyser,. 1966, p. 186; Keyser, 1969; Halle and Keyser, 1971; Leech, 1969, p. 105). But even these authors operate mainly with a phonetic conception of verse structure in which only the relative oppositions of syllables according to their physical prominence are metrically relevant. The hypothesis concerning the structural significance of the relative prominence of the syllable in poetry (and not its absolute stress or nonstress) was formulated by Jespersen in 1900 in his well known article Notes on Metre. For its day this hypothesis was a step forward; 19th century literary critics thought only in terms of absolute, unconditional stress and nonstress of the syllables in verse, identifying, of course, stress with meter. Clear cases of the omission of ictic stress, extrametrical stresses, and syllabic duplications on the non-ictuses were labelled "substitution of feet", for example, the substitution of a spondee, an anapest, a pyrrhic or trochaic foot for an iamb (see Saintsbury, 1961 (1906)). Jespersen's hypothesis was developed by a number of scholars (for example, Whitehall, 1951, 1956; Whitehall and Hill, 1958; Chatman, 1956, 1965; M. Halperin, 1962) and has exerted an influence on the entire state of modern scholarship on English poetry. Thus, even in the most recent works, which theoretically distinguish between meter and rhythm as phenomena of different levels, the authors are absolutely determined to find a real "stress maximum" on every ictus (Halle and Keyser, 1966, 1971, 1973; Keyser, 1969). Failing that, these scholars introduce the concept of "allowable exceptions" (see, for example, Keyser, 1969, 381, 383) or declare the line to be "unmetrical" and allowable only for the sake of greater expressiveness (Keyser, 1969, 394). If the metrist insists on finding a real ("phonetical") stress maximum on every ictus of verse from Chaucer to Keats, and each time he fails to find it declares the line "unmetrical", he is once again confusing the abstract concept of meter with the accentual structure of a concrete line. Writings on English verse as it has been already mentioned, are usually of a general nature (for example, Jespersen, 1900; Wimsatt and Beardsley, 1959; Halle and Keyser, 1966; Keyser, 1969; Levin, 1962, 1971). The analysis of verse texts in these works is usually limited to one or several short poems (for example, Chatman, 1965). None contains a large scale comparative analysis of representative samples of verse conducted according to a uniform theoretical approach. The authors of prosodical studies of individual poets are usually content to

7 note certain phenomena which occur in the poet's work, at best they may count some of the more easily isolated individual elements of the verse structure such as inversions within the foot produced by disyllabic words (Konig, 1888; Bridges, 1967 (1921); Robinson, 1971), enjambment (Robertson, 1930), or elisions and syllabic duplications between the ictuses (Moloney, 1950; Legouis, 1962). Sprott's account of Milton's prosody (1953) is somewhat of an exception. Sprott not only counts the number of rhythmic inversions by feet in individual poems (p. 101), he was one of the first English metrists to compile a profile showing the pattern of stresses omitted in the line (108). However, his stress profile is based not on syllabic positions, but on feet; therefore, a foot containing a stress shift from an ictic to a non-ictic position (a foot with socalled rhythmic inversion) is just as normal as a noninverted foot stressed on the ictus. Thus the first foot of the English iamb, which is the "weakest" (structurally irregular), has no higher a percentage of omitted " f o o t " stresses than the final foot, which is the "strongest" (structurally regular). Unfortunately, Sprott's stress profiles give us an imprecise idea of the accentual structure of Milton's lines. Sprott does not treat the question of non-ictic stress at all. American and West European scholars who do make calculations are usually using poetry to investigate general problems relating to English itself such as the placement of stress in polysyllabic words or the syllabic variants of polysyllabic words (see, for example, Scholl, 1944; Kokeritz, 1953; Sipe, 1968) or relating to the attribution and dating of texts (in which case the calculations usually do not involve elements of the verse structure). Thus, Oras (1966) calculates the number and types of distribution of adjectives and attributive participles within the sentence in Milton's works. Miles' works are outstanding examples of the application of precise methods to the study of poetry (for example, Miles, 1965, a lexical frequency dictionary covering four centuries of English poetry). Meter, however, is a deductive concept only at the highest level of abstraction. A multifaceted analysis of the rhythmical structure of verse is necessary to flesh out more concrete concepts of meter (say, of the English iambus as differing from the German and the Russian iambus). It is the main purpose of this monograph to provide a quantitative definition of the evolving structural and typological features of the classical English meters: the iambic tetrameter, the trochaic tetrameter, the nondramatic iambic pentameter, the dramatic iambic pentameter, the four-ictic ternary meter with a variable anacrusis, as well as several transitional forms: a) between syllabo-tonic and tonic (the Middle-English and the 19th century dol'niks) and b) between syllabo-tonic and syllabic (the unique verse of Donne's Satyres). A multilevel analysis of the structure of the accentual rhythm of verse (covering approximately 100,000 lines dating from the

8 13th-19th centuries) precedes the description of each of the meters, the definition of their parameters and boundaries, the identification of the historical changes in the meters and the individual peculiarities of poets, as well as the ways in which one meter or system of versification is transformed into another. The central problem of a metrical verse is that of meter, which in its most general form may be presented as a sequence of strong positions (ictuses) and weak positions (non-ictuses). The peculiarities of a given meter in a given language depend on a) the structure of the language and b) the literary traditions. Thus, missing ictic stresses caused by unstressed syllables of polysyllabic words are a distinguishing feature of the Russian iambus (Ekateriinskix dvorcdv, Admiraltejskaja igla), because there are many long polysyllabic words with one stress in Russain. Thus, shifts of stress from an ictus onto an adjacent non-ictic position which have always been typical of the English iambus, are not allowed in the Russian iambus. That is why Shakespeare's line Romans, friends, followers, favourers of my right is perfectly iambic, while a rhythmically identical Russian line (from Ivan Aksenov's translations of Elizabethan dramas) Zdrdvstvuj, den', zdravstvuj, zoloto moje is not iambic at all. It is clear then, that one and the same meter has its own distinguishing features in every language. The first and the main problem put forward in this book was to give a quantitative definition of the parameters which outline English syllabo-tonic meters on the binary and ternary basis and to compare them typologically with the corresponding Russian meters. The force of restrictions imposed by a meter on the selection and combination of language elements into verse varies from epoch to epoch, from poet to poet. The second problem was to trace periods of rigid norms and periods of slackness of norms (when the meter was just forming or already loosening). In the process of loosening of the norms some of the features of the meter remain almost intact while others change. The third problem was to separate constant and variable features of meters. The features of a meter vary within certain conventional limits. When the variation surpasses these limits, a poem passes over to another system of versification or another (adjacent) meter. The fourth problem was to reveal the limits of metrical variation, outlined with the help of accepted parameters in the form of metrical thresholds, while the fifth problem was to study transitory forms, adjacent with syllabo-tonic meters. It is possible to compare not only verse with verse but also verse with prose or with prose models of verse which resemble real verse in one or many ways. Thus a prose model of English iambic pentameter is a "verse text" constructed out of prose segments, which in all the main ways resemble iambic pentameter but have occurred in prose by pure chance. Comparison of verse with its prose models has helped to solve the sixth problem: to reveal

9 the features which are typical of verse as a specific structure and to separate them from the features inherent to the English syntagm in general. Analysis of prose models of verse has made it possible to touch upon the seventh problem — to decide to what extent various disyllabic and trisyllabic meters are natural, organic for the English language and the English speech in general. Unequal linguistic "naturalness" of the meters partially accounts for their unequal proportions in the metrical repertoire of English poets. In the process of analysis of the syllabic and accentual structures of verse there turned up some doubtful cases. Sometimes it was not clear whether certain sound combinations should be considered syllabic or not. In Middle English verse certain polysyllabic words were found in which the place of word stress, suggested by the verse form, seemed to distort their normal accentual structure. Finally, it was necessary to decide how to intone certain monosyllabic words: as strongly stressed? as weakly stressed or unstressed? as ambiguous (sometimes stressed and sometimes not)? In this way three more purely phonetic problems presented themselves and required special study. Thus, the eighth problem concerned syllable forming properties of certain sounds and sound combinations, the ninth problem was the place of word stress in Middle English polysyllables and the tenth problem touched upon phrasal stress (accentuation, intoning) of certain non-autonomous disyllabic words and of all monosyllables. The phonetic study preceded the study of verse form but was based on the known properties of the latter, since verse form is constructed from linguistic entities and is based on their rhythmforming properties. The phonologically relevant oppositions of the given language are used in creating verse form and may be revealed in its analysis. Thus verse and language are interrelated; this relationship is one of the central problems of modern metrics. The study of metrical features through language and linguistic features through verse should augment and enrich one another. Syllabo-tonic meters require both syllabic and accentual order in verse texts. This general rule, however, does not exclude but rather foresees syllabic and accentual variation within certain canonized norms, specific in every language. Calculation of the syllabic variation went on with the help of the following parameters: 1) The mean number of disyllabic combinations in the non-ictic positions of lines (both in the anacrusis and inter-ictic intervals). Here is an example of a typical English verse line with a disyllabic combination in the fifth position: The ice did split with a thunder-fit. 2) The mean number of omitted syllables (both in the non-ictic and ictic positions). Here is an example with a typical omission of a syllable in the fifth position: And day and night, day and night. 3) The profile of disyllabic combinations on non-ictuses and of omitted syllables on both ictuses and non-ictic positions (their per-

10 centage for every position from all the lines of the text). 4) Syllabic types of line structure and the frequency of occurrence of every type. Here are examples of two lines of two different syllabic structure types: And thistles, and nettles, and darnels rank; Between the time of the wind and the snow. Disyllabic combinations fill up the third and the fifth positions of the first line, the fifth and the seventh positions of the second line. The first line is typical while the second atypical of the English four-ictic dol'niks. All the calculations were made in two variants: maximum and minimum. Such an approach excluded possibilities of subjective interpretation of ambiguous cases. Thus, a line from Rossetti's four-ictic dol'nik verse Daughter, once more I bid you read in the maximum variant was interpreted "dol' nikally", with a zero syllable in the anacrusis and a disyllabic combination between the first and the second ictuses: [-L u ijj J- u J- u -L] , while in the minimum variant it was interpreted "syllabo-tonically", with a rhythmical inversion of stresses in the first foot and no disyllabic combinations between ictuses [ill - i l l 1 U -1- U -1-] . Calculation of the accentual variation went on along the following parameters. 1) General stress profile A) on ictuses and B) on non-ictuses (percentage of stressed syllables on every position from all the lines of the text). 2) Differentiating stress profile on ictuses and non-ictuses, for example, a separate calculation of missing strong ictic stress A) due to unstressed syllables of polysyllabic words and B) due to unstressed monosyllables. Compare missing strong stresses on the last ictus of two lines by Shakespeare, the first typical of his early tragedies, the second — of his late dramas: But with advice and silent secrecy and Do not abuse my mother's bounty by ... 3) The general number and distribution within the line of the so-called inversions of stress between the ictus and the adjacent non-ictus A) within a foot and B) on a feet juncture. In " A " two types of inversion were singled out: a) caused by a disyllabic or a trisyllabic word, for example: Warwick, revenge\ brother, revenge my deathl and b) caused by two monosyllables, an autonomous strongly stressed word and a non-autonomous, weakly stressed or unstressed one, for example Men for their sons, wives for their husbands. In "B" three types were singled out: a) caused by a disyllabic word, as in She replied earnestly, "It shall be mine..." b) caused by two monosyllables, the first a non-autonomous, unstressed word, the second — autonomous and stressed, but syntactically and accentually subordinated to the following word, for example: And the old Tartar came upon the sand-, c) also caused by two monosyllables, but the second word is syntactically autonomous and fully strongly stressed, as in And his sobs choked him; and he clutch'd his sword. 4) Percentage of the so-called "unmetrical" trisyllabic combinations with the central syllable in an ictus. The term "unmetrical" combinations is used to define these relatively unfrequent trisyllabic groups where the central, ictic syllable, contrary to the general tendency, is stressed weaker than one or both adjacent non-ictic syllables, for example: Clench my te^th, suck my lips in

11 tight, and paint. 5) The total number of syllables in a line, which are stressed atypically of the metrical positions they occupy, for example four syllables of the last example: the first, the second, the third and the seventh. The percentage of lines containing different numbers of "atypical" syllables from the total number of lines was counted. 6) The percentage of such "atypical" syllables which stand singly or in twoes, threes etc. from all the syllabic material of the text analysed. Thus the last line contains a trisyllabic group of atypical syllables (Clench my teeth) and a single atypical syllable (the adverb in), while Sweeping the dust, came near, and in mute woe contains two disyllabic groups and a single atypical syllable. In Shakespeare's sonnets, for example (the end of the 16th century), single atypical syllables comprise 10.9% of the whole syllabic material, syllables standing in disyllabic groups comprise 7.4% , those forming trisyllabic groups — only 1.4% while not a single tetrasyllabic group has been found, while in Dryden's "Aeneid" (the end of the 17th century) the indices are much lower: correspondingly 7.5, 3.6 and 0.3%, and again not a single tetrasyllabic group. General peculiarities of phonology and syntax of a language are used in constructing its verse forms. Sure enough, poetry has its own properties and conditions; the speech of poetry may not fully correlate with the non-poetic forms of speech. However, barring unfrequent exceptions, both poetic and non-poetic forms of speech are constructed after the same laws, general for speech forms in a given language. That is why analysing the form of verse one can reveal certain properties of the given language and its non-poetic speech. Exactly this is done in the phonetical chapters of the book. Syllable-forming properties of certain sound combinations, the place of word stress in certain Middle English polysyllables, degrees and frequency of phrasal stress of different monosyllables are studied with the help of verse from itself. For example, degrees and frequency of stress on monosyllables are evaluated by means of counting the ration between the number of times words of a particular class have been found a) on ictuses and b) on non-ictuses (potentially stressed and unstressed syllabic positions). The more often words of a certain class are found on ictuses, the more constantly strongly stressed they must have been for the poet. The cardinal theoretical concepts of the book are those of meter, norm and types of deviation from the norm. We came to a step-by-step definition of the concept of meter, starting from a more general and abstract and passing over to more and more concrete ones. Though this definition was formulated as a result of our analysis, it is believed reasonable to give it right here at the beginning of the book. The meter of the verse is abstracted from a concrete verse text (or texts), but here we may distinguish different degrees of abstraction. The definition of the meter varies with the degree of abstraction. Below we present a stepby-step definition of meter based on different levels of abstraction. (1) Meter, in its most abstract sense, is the alternation of ictuses and

12 non-ictuses in a certain sequence, regardless of the phenomenon which serves as the basis of this alteration: the length of the syllables, as in classical verse, or the strength of the stress on the syllables, as in English verse. At this level of abstraction the concept of, say, iambus, unites all its national forms (ancient Greek and Latin, German, English and Russian iambic metres). (2) A less abstract definition of meter takes account of the relevant phonological oppositions which help realize the meter in a given language. Thus the ancient Latin iambic meter is defined as an alternation of potentially short and long syllabic positions, while Medieval Latin, as well as modern English, German and Russian iambus may be defined as an alternation of potentially unstressed and stressed syllabic positions. (3) At the next level of abstraction the general frequency of stress and non-stress is taken into account which, as we remember, varies from constant to arbitrary. Thus the concepts of ictuses and non-ictuses become concretized for every national system of meter. Here the meter of Russian iambus may be defined as the alternation of constantly unstressed positions (non-ictuses) and arbitrarily stressed positions (ictuses) within a line with an accentually constant last ictus. The meter of English iambus must be defined in another way: it is the alternation of dominantly-unstressed and dominantly-stressed positions (non-ictuses and ictuses). The English iambus knows neither constant stress nor constant non-stress. (4) Such concepts as "constantly stressed", "constantly unstressed", "predominantly stressed", "predominantly unstressed", or "arbitrarily stressed" syllable may be quantified. Thus we shall see that for the English iambic pentameter the concept of a "predominantly stressed" syllable (ictus) means that an average of 74-87% of the even syllables are strongly stressed, while the idea of a "predominantly unstressed" syllable (non-ictus) means that from 7-21% of the odd syllables will bear an extra-metrical strong stress. The concept of arbitrarily stressed syllable for the Russian iambic tetrameter has been found by K.F. Taranovsky to range from 75-99% of strong stresses on ictuses. These mean data do not differ much from the mean stress index of the English ictuses; they do not yet reveal the gravest difference in stress of every ictic position of the Russian and English iambus. Such differentiation (concretization) of each ictic stress is done on the next, still lower level of abstraction. (5-6) We may consider the degree of stress on the syllables in each position of the metrical sequence separately, not only defining the metrical features of verse written in different languages (5), but also of verse written in the same language, but at different epochs, in different genres and by different poets (6). Thus it has been found by K.F. Taranovsky that the stress of the weakest, third ictus of the Russian iambic tetrameter varies within 54-24% while that of the weakest, first ictus of the English iambic pentameter of the same epoch

13 varies from 76-59%. The indices do not even contact (24-54% and 59-76%). Thus the non-final ictuses of the Russian iambus are indeed arbitrarily stressed, while those of the English iambus are predominantly stressed. (7) Further, we may determine the number of deviations (omissions of ictic stress, extrametrical non-ictic stresses) allowable per line, conditionally assuming them equal in importance. We have termed these deviations "atypical syllables" and have counted their total number per line, their possible combinations in clusters (groups) and the syntactic functions of words responsible for them. This stage of analysis actually deals with generalization of accentual line variants, taking into account not only missing ictic stresses (as it has been traditionally done for the Russian iambic tetrameter) but also non-ictic stresses which are so typical of the English iambus. It has been found that the line of English non-dramatic iambic pentameter of the Shakespeare — Swinburne type may contain a) a total of not more than five atypical syllables and b) not larger than trisyllabic groups of such consecutive syllables, while for the Dryden-Pope type of pentameter this limit is even higher: four atypical syllables per line and disyllabic groups of such consecutive syllables. It means, that the limits of permissible variation of meter at different epochs and with different poets are not identical. A line, metrical for one epoch, one genre and one author may turn unmetrical for another epoch, another genre and another poets. Thus, Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws is iambic in Shakespeare's Sonnets, but wouldn't be in Pope; So, now, bring them in, for I'll play the cook is iambic in a Shakesperian play, but not in his sonnets, while Donne's line Nature's Secretary, the Philosopher falls outside the English pentameter altogether. Concluding the step-by-step definition of metre in which the degree of abstraction from a concrete text decreases with every next step, we might note, that every next definition of the concept describes variants in relation to every preceding definition. Thus, every preceding definition is a sort of invariant for every next definition. While separating metrical lines from unmetrical ones we introduced the concepts of norm and two types of deviations from the norm. 4 The norm is abstracted from statistically most frequent line variants. The latter are, naturally, metrical and situated, as it were, in the centre of the model of the meter. Deviations from the norm of the first type are the model of those line variants, which occur in verse unfrequently but regularly enough. These are, for example, rhythmical inversions of stress within the foot of English iambus caused by a disyllabic word, as in Wisely on me lay all the Blame. Such lines are metrical but situated on the periphery of the model of the meter. Finally, deviations from the norm of the second type are statistical anomalies, such as, for example, Nature's Secretary, the Philosopher. Such lines are outside the model of the meter.

14 It is far from easy to draw a line between the norm and deviations from the norm, and even more so — between the two types of deviations: there is no hard and fast demarkation between them. Quantitative analysis comes in handy here again. Calculation of quantitative indices which separate a still metrical verse from already unmetrical one makes it possible to define the borders of a meter in the form of a list of thresholds. Thresholds of a meter are the quantitative indices which characterize the limits of loosening of the meter. A verse is still metrical while within these limits but stops being metrical as soon as it steps over them. The verse then begins to change its quality; it turns into an adjacent verse form or stops being verse altogether. Some thresholds are more constant and characterize the whole given meter in a given language, while others vary from period to period and from genre to genre. In this book we have tried to formulate quantitative thresholds of English syllabo-tonic meters and transitory forms in their evolution. Chapter 1 defines the typical and atypical syllabic variants of certain polysyllabic words used in poetry from the 16th-l9th centuries. The syllabic capability of consonant + sonorant combinations is also examined. We found that for various reasons the syllabic capability of the sonorant depends on the nature of the preceding consonant. It was also determined that the syllabic capability of the sonorants has increased in the course of their evolution. Finally, some of the typical and atypical syllabic variants of the so-called triphthongs [aua] and [ aw ] which occur in verse are examined. In Chapter 2 we come to some conclusions about the features of Middle English word stress, based on the results of an analysis of 12th-l6th century poetry. The accentual structure of two and three syllable words is investigated (mainly native-English, but some French loan words were studied too). We conclude that native-English words with a certain morphological and sound structure may have had accentual doublets in this period. Chapter 3 clarifies some of the features of the phrasal stress of monosyllables in non-poetic speech and in poetry. Monosyllables comprise up to 80% of the lexicon of poetry, and include all the parts of speech. Due to their structural features monosyllables are distinguished by a special accentual variability conditioned by the phrasal rhythm. The method of metrical indices helps us to investigate the features of the phrasal stress of monosyllables from the poetry itself. The findings of Chapters 1-3 are used in the metrical investigations pursued in Chapters 4-8. In Chapter 4 the features of the meter and rhythm of early English 12th14th century rhymed verse are identified. The syllabic, accentual, and metrical structures of the verse which replaced the Old English alliterative accentual system of versification are investigated. This analysis attests to the dol'nik-

15 like character of pre-Chaucerian verse, which Chaucer was to transform into the literary iambic tetrameter and pentameter. Chapter 5 investigates the iambic and trochaic tetrameters, defines the features of their meter and rhythm, and interprets several specific and previously unexplained properties of the English trochee. The syllabic and accentual structure of the English literary dol'nik is analyzed in detail and the threshold separating the irregular iambic tetrameter from the literary dol'nik is defined. Finally, the features of the English four-ictic ternary measure with a variable anacrusis are investigated, and the actual verse is compared to its speech model. Chapters 6 and 7 trace the evolution of the meter and rhythm of the nondramatic and dramatic iambic pentameters. Many aspects of the syllabic and accentual structures of the verse are analyzed, as well as the structure of the endings of unrhymed (blank) dramatic iambic pentameters. The results of this analysis allowed us to define the meter of the commonest of the English classical measures not only in an abstract form, but as a list of constraints which the meter imposes on the linguistic material. We learned that the dissolution of the English iambic tetrameter was caused by the growing irregularity of its syllabic structure (ending in the dol'nik), while the irregularity of the iambic pentameter was caused by changes in its accentual structure (eventually resulting in the syllabic decasyllabic). Finally, in Chapter 8 we propose a methodology for identifying the meter of a transitional verse form, Donne's Satyres. The Satyres are an intermediary form between syllabo-tonic and syllabic verse. The meter of the Satyres may be defined, first, by a quantitative comparison of its verse structure with the canonical iamb, and second, by a comparison with a speech model of quasisyllabic verse. The comparison of the canonical iamb, the Satyres, and the models of quasisyllabic verse by a number of parameters allowed us to calculate the fine distinction separating the verse form of the Satyres from the other two. Comparing the iamb with prose models of verse revealed which of the structural features of the actual iambic verse are a) determined by general linguistic factors or b) specific to verse as a special linguistic structure. Appendix 1 (to Chapter 2) investigates the distribution of several polysyllabic words in medieval High German poetry. The hypothesis is advanced that accentual doublets existed in the High German dialect as well as in Middle English. Appendix 2 (to Chapter 3) traces the use of monosyllables in the Russian iamb and draws several conclusions about their accentual differentiation. In Appendix 3 (to Chapter 4) an attempt is made to determine the authorship of fragment C of Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose. In Appendix 4 (to Chapter 6) the rhythmical features of the various genres

16 written in the late 16th-17th century nondramatic iambic pentameter are investigated. The features of the poet's individual style are shown to be manifested more forcefully than the features of parallel genres used by different poets. 5

NOTES 1 The present work first appeared as Anglijskij stix. Teorija i istorija. 2 The first chapter of L.L. Gasparov's monograph Sovremennyj russkij stix: metrika i ritmika Modern Russian Poetry: Metrics and Rhythmics, (Nauka, Moskva, 1974) contains a detailed historical survey of the application of precise methods in Russian metrics, a summary of the results, and an outline of future prospects. 3 A detailed historical survey of 16th-19th century metrical theory is found in Omond (1921), of 18th century theory in Fussell (1966). 4 The question of the "norm" and "allowable and unallowable deviations from the norm" has also begun to be raised in the works of American scholars (see, for example, Keyser, 1969; Halle, Keyser, 1971; Wimsatt, 1971). However, these scholars do not draw a line between the two concepts nor develop quantitative historical criteria for distinguishing them. Thus the line Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley empirically designed by Halle and Keyser is now often cited as deviating from the English iambic pentameter norm. Indeed, so it does; but quantitative analysis of English iambic pentameter in its evolution shows that a line with fewer metrically atypical phrasal stresses would also deviate, the general threshold of the norm being higher and the particular threshold for certain periods - higher still (see Chapters 6,7 and especially 8). While this book was in preparation a monograph by James Bailey came out "To5 ward a Statistical Analysis of English Verse" (The Peter de Ridder Press, Lisse/Netherlands, 1975) in which the Russian linguistic-statistical method is successfully applied to English iambic tetrameter. This is practically the first attempt of a non-Russian scholar to apply broad statistical analysis to English verse.

1 VERSE AND SYLLABLE

1. The method "from verse to language " A verse is a specific speech structure, which is constructed according to the same most general laws of the language as non-poetic speech. Thus in our analysis of verse form we encounter a number of general linguistic problems mainly touching historical phonetics and phonology. It is well known that the diachronic features of the sound, syllabic, and accentual structures of words and word combinations may be clarified in several ways, for example: 1) by studying the structural features and developmental tendencies of the language at later periods in order to reconstruct earlier forms; 2) by comparing the indications of grammarians, orthoepists, and lexicographers as to the pronunciation of their day; 3) by analyzing the regularities of "phonetic writing" (mainly cursive prose texts); 4) by investigating the use of doubtful forms in verse. A number of phonologically significant linguistic oppositions are utilized in the structure of a language. These oppositions may be identified by analyzing a verse form. Thus, by investigating the verse rhythm and its correlation with the meter, we can determine the accentual structure of polysyllabic words and the features of the phrasal stress; by studying the types of rhymes, puns, and alliteration, we can reveal the properties of the sound system of the language.1 Verse is one of the most important sources of information about the early history of the phonetic structures of languages. However, this approach too has its difficulties. 1. The verse form may be more or less strict; therefore, the constraints it imposes on the choice and combination of linguistic entities may be more or less demanding. The less accomplished, or more irregular the verse form, the less its direct correlation with the general linguistic features of the language material used in the verse. Thus the rhymes of master poets like Chaucer and Gower are more reliable indicators of the sound structure of the period than the imperfect assonantal rhymes of 13th century poets. 2. Even when the verse form is strict, the rhythm of concrete lines by no means always coresponds to the abstract metrical model; it may contain various deviations from the statistical norm. Even if a disyllabic word like become or enough occupies an ictic and a non-ictic position in the line, that does not necessarily mean that it is pronounced with a stress on the first

18

syllable, as König (1888, 71) and Kökeritz (1953, 33) have supposed. 3. Poetic speech is structured according to the same general phonetic, morphological, and syntactic laws of language as non-poetic speech. But the degree of correlation between poetic and non-poetic speech varies. Thus, Chaucer wrote in his contemporary colloquial London dialect which, by the late 14th century, and not without the help of Chaucer himself (Brewer, 1966, 3) had begun to oppose itself to the other dialects as the basis of a new national literay language (Jarceva, 1969, 32). On the other hand, Chaucer's 15 th century epigons progressively archaized poetic language by using accentual and syllabic word forms which had almost become extinct. Thus the facultative —e ending continues to be used in 15th-early 16th century poetry, while Wyatt (early 16th century) often uses French loan words with an archaic stress on the second syllable (Foxwell, 1964, 32ff.; also see Chapter 2 of the present study). Late 16th-mid 17th century dramatists write in the contemporary and most widespread Southern variant of English at a time when the literary language had only began to gain prominence and, in that sense, oppose itself to the other variants of English (Jarceva, 1969, 106-110, 159-161). A special stage pronunciation apparently did not yet exist (Kökeritz, 1953, 13); poets expected (at least in the dialogues) a natural, conversation manner of declamation from their actors: Hamlet's instructions to the actors are sufficient proof of this. Unlike the poetry (especially the dramatic poetry) of the firsf half of the 17th century, the form of poetic language in the late 17th-mid 18th century had become more artificial under the influence of the complex aesthetic and literary canons of the age (Fussell, 1966, 96-97). According to 18th century theoreticians, verse ought to be read differently than prose. Thus Robertson (1799, 3-9) demands that the words never, under, later, and shading in Milton's Paradise Lost be stressed on the second syllable if it fell on an ictus. Thus, the verse form cannot be considered an absolutely reliable indicator of the general linguistic structure of words and word combinations. When the investigator analyzes linguistic phenomena through verse he is defining not the unknown by means of the known, but rather the less known by means of the better known. In this and the two succeeding chapters certain aspects of the phonetic structure of Middle and modern English are clarified with the help of the verse structure. However, the author has not forgotten for a moment that the results received are to some extent relative.

2. The syllable and syllabication The problem of the syllable and syllabication is extremely complicated and has not yet received a final solution. However, the autonomy of the syllable

19 in the phonetic structure of the word and the relative ease with which it may be distinguished are obvious. It is no coincidence that the first alphabets were usually syllabic rather than phonic. It is also interesting that even in the severest cases of speech disorder the syllable is not broken down into sounds (Zinder, 1960, 280). There are various viewpoints on the syllable and the various theories of syllabication, but we needn't dwell on them here. It is sufficient to say that the syllable is a complex phenomenon in both articulatory and acoustic respects; the various theories of the syllable are based on its various aspects and properties. The definitions of the syllable and the principles of syllable formation and syllabication given below are a summary of the views of G.P. Torsuev, as presented in his Problemy teoreticeskoj fonetiki i fonologii (1969). According to G.P. Torsuev's definition (1969, 9) "... the syllable is the basic entity of the sound structure of the word... The syllable is the smallest entity into which the word may be articulatorily segmented. In its degree of articulatory autonomy the syllable, being a part of the whole, is second only to the whole itself - the sound structure of the word... The closest relationship of sounds-phonemes is realized in the syllable. The syllable is the smallest element in which the components of the accentual-rhythmical structure, i.e. the word stress, are realized." Syllable formation, continues Torsuev, "is determined by four conditions: 1) the juxtaposition or combination of sounds having a free passage of air with sounds having a completely constricted passage of air (a full closure); 2) by a definite correlation of the articulatory speech organs; 4) by a definite distribution of the force of the phonatory output" (1969, 65-66). In Torsuev's opinion, the presence of more than one combination of vowels with a consonant in a word suffices to segment it into articulatoryauditory segments in which the sounds formed by a free passage of air and pronounced loudly are separated from one another by sounds formed by the closure or narrowing of the passage of air and pronounced less loudly. The number of syllables in a word is basically determined by the number of these articulatory-auditory segments. A definite distribution of the tension of the muscles regulating the force of the phonatory output and the muscles of the articulatory organs is superimposed on the segmentation of the word caused by the alternation of openness and narrowing or closure of the passage of air and the corresponding segmentation according to the loudness of the sounds. The distribution of muscular tension and the definite correlation of the articulatory phases of the combined sounds determine the boundaries of the sound segments or syllables: the syllabic boundary is marked by a minimum of muscular tension, while sounds within the aggregate of the syllable display closer articulatoryauditory relationships than those at the junctures between syllables.

20 A definite auditory effect always corresponds to a definite distribution of muscular tension; changes in the loudness and distinctness of the timbre of the sounds are relevant to the segmentation of the word into syllables in auditory perception. Even when the phonemic substructure of a word does not change, in certain cases the syllabic substructure may vary. A variation in the number of syllables and the location of the syllabic division may be related to a difference in the "styles" of pronunciation; Scerba has already mentioned this possibility (1953, 80). Syllabic word variants whose sound structures differ due to different styles of pronunciation are well known. The historically determined variation of the syllabic structure of a word caused by a change in its sound structure is also well documented (for example, the reduction and loss of the final —e which took place in English from the 13th-15th centuries). We will demonstrate that a variation in the syllabic structure of a word with the same phonemic substructure may also be historically conditioned.

3. The problem of "verse and syllable " Determining the number of syllables in a word is vital to the theory and practical analysis of the structure of English syllabo-tonic verse. The number of syllables between ictuses determines the meter of the verse. Thus, the meter of the syllabo-tonic binary measures does not allow the non-ictic positions to be filled by more than one syllable, while the dol'nik meter allows interictic intervals ranging from 1-2 syllables. An increase in the number of disyllabic non-ictuses in syllabo-tonic verse leads to its degeneration and eventual transformation into anoter meter — the dol'nik (see Chapter 5). The syllabic structure of the non-ictuses in English verse cannot always be treated simply and unambiguously. We know, for instance, that the middle unstressed vowel in English three syllable words stressed on the first syllable (victory, ivory, shuddering) is easily syncopated. However, as in earlier periods, certain modern English three syllable words do not normally have an abbreviated syllabic variant. Words like majesty, whose sound structure makes it difficult to syncopate the unstressed middle vowel (if it were syncopated a hard to pronounce [d3st] combination would result) normally have only a full syllabic form. But how, then, are we to interpret this line from a late 16th century play — Your Majesty's faithful and most humble subject (Norton and Sackville, Gorboduc, III, i, 42)? Is there an extrametrical syllable or not between the second and third ictuses? It is generally recognized that a sonorant preceded by a consonant regularly forms a separate syllable (Gimson, 1970, 53, 189; Jones, 1956a, 213,56;

21

Jespersen, 1950, 130; Kurath, 1964, 156; Torsuev, 1969, 68). Granted this, how are we to interpret Matthew Arnold's My terrible father's terrible horse! and said (Sohrab and Rustum, 744)? According to Daniel Jones' pronouncing dictionary (1957), terrible has only a trisyllabic form, with a syllabic [1] and a nonsyncopated [s/i]. Does it follow that in Arnold's line there are extrametrical syllables between the first and second and third and fourth ictuses? Might the syllabic structure of terrible have been different in the 19th century t h a i it is today? In that case the line becomes a typical decasyllabic iambic pentameter. The so-called triphthong [aio] is syllabically ambivalent: it may comprise one syllable (as in hire, dire) or it may be divided into two syllables (as in higher, dyer). The final element of this triphthong is believed to form a syllable if it comprises a separate morpheme — a suffix (Jones, 1956a, 414, 415, 106; 1956b, 184, 185, 60). 3 Does higher have a masculine or feminine ending in Swift's Yet, when you sink, I seem the higher (Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, 46)? Theoretically, higher is disyllabic and should form a feminine ending. However, Swift rhymes higher with aspire (/ have no title to aspire; Yet, when you sink, I seem the higher). In aspire [aw] is monosyllabic. Does it follow that [aw] in higher is also monosyllabic? Might it be permissible for a disyllabic [ai-9] to rhyme with a monosyllabic [aia] in verse, thus becoming its structural equivalent? The problems listed above are going to be examined, namely: a) the syllabic structure of some polysyllabic words from the 16th-19th centuries; b) the syllabic function of consonant + sonorant combinations; c) the syllabic nature of the so-called triphthongs [aia] and [aua]. Thirty five selections (625 lines apiece) of late 16th-19th century iambic pentameter served as the material for the investigation. 4 Most of the material was dramatic iambic pentameter (taken from 25 plays), since the speech structures of dramatic poetry is presumably closer to non-poetic conversational speech than that of nondramatic poetry.

4. The syllabic structure of words of the type cardinal, murderer,

insolent.

The process of reduction and loss of unstressed vowels has always been one of the characteristic traits of the Germanic dialects and later, the Germanic languages. This process has been especially active in the Scandinavian and English dialects (compare the Old English forms mxgden, hwylc, (the modern maiden and which) and the Old High German magatin, hwelich (Lehmann, 1956,94). The process of reduction and loss of unstressed vowels has continued in Middle and modern English, producing many of the current syllabic word forms. The loss of the final unstressed vowel (apocope) is a well known

22 characteristic of Middle English. The loss of initial unstressed vowels (apheresis) gave such later forms as squire (< esquire) and tis (< it is). Syncopation of the middle vowel resulted, for example, in the disyllabic form of business. In Shakespeare this word may still be found in its trisyllabic form. All the periods in the development of English have not been characterized by the process of reducing the syllabic quantity of words and word combinations to the same degree. The process of reduction seems to have been activated about the time of Spenser. Spenser still regarded the word heuene, which had had both two and three syllables in Chaucer's verse, as disyllabic. In a letter to Gabriel Harvey, Spenser likens a monosyllabic heauen to a lame dog, limping on one foot. Harvey himself used the word as a monosyllable: he demanded that the words heaven, seven and even be spelled as they were pronounced, i.e. heavn, seavn, evn. (Elizabethan Critical Essays, 1971, (1904), v.l, 99. 120). In 17th century verse these words are practically all monosyllables (the second vowel was syncopated, while the fricative [v]+ sonorant [nj combination, as we shall see, was not yet syllabic). The process of reducing the syllabic quantity of words and word combinations was especially active in the ages of Shakespeare (Kokeritz, 1953, 6, 255-291), Milton (Sprott, 1953, 69), and the first half of the 18th century (Fussell, 1966, 64). During the 1760's the fashion for abbreviated forms came to an end. Thus, in the 1720's rhetoricians regarded the syncopated forms of venison, medicine, powdery, and watery as the norm (Watts, 1726, 15, 16, 121, 123), while in the 1760's the long forms were considered correct (Rice, 1765, 96). In the early part of the 18th century abbreviated word forms were considered elegant and refined; by the 1760's they had become vulgarized (Fussell, 1966, 93-95). In the 19th century Dickens puts abbreviated forms in the mouths of comic or uneducated characters. How were words like watery and medicine pronounced if they occupied two syllabic positions in verse? The answer depends upon one's view of verse structure. Thus, Kokeritz is firmly convinced of the utter syllabic propriety of Shakespeare's verse. He feels that all the words in Shakespeare, not only those in which an apostrophe indicates the loss of a vowel, should be pronounced as though abbreviated. In his opinion, practically all polysyllabic words in Shakespeare's time had an abbreviated syllabic variant. Thus it is surprising not that poets sometimes failed to mark syncopation, apocope, and apheresis with apostrophes, but that they bothered to mark them at all (Kokeritz, 1953, 284). The opposite point of view is held, for example, by Partridge (1964, 96). He finds that complete syllabic uniformity among the lines is not a characteristic of English verse at all, especially Elizabethan verse. He acknowledges the existence and common use of abbreviated syllabic variants in Shakespeare's time, but does not infer that the verse form made their use obligatory. Syllabic variants with "gliding vowels" in Partridge's opinion, are used even

23 where an apostrophe would seem to require a shortened syllabic word form. Sipe (1968) shares Kökeritz' opinion. Ideas similar to Partridge's have also been expressed previously (Stein, 1944, 373-397; Scholl, 1944,398-445). The authors unanimously note that the middle vowel is lost especially easily before the consonants r, I, m, and n (Kökeritz, 1953, 284; König, 1888, 19; Partridge, 1964, 96; Sprott, 1953, 86-99; Scholl, 1944, 398445). Abbreviation is more plausible in words like flattery, insolent, and pardoning than in medicine, riveted, and incident. Vowels were easily lost in polysyllabic loan words, especially if the folowing word began with a vowel (König, 1888, 26, 27,33,34). The variability of the syllabic structure of English syllabotonic verse, especially in Elizabethan drama, is obvious to us (for more information see Chapter 7). However, it remains to establish: 1) which polysyllabic words were likely to have normative abbreviated variants during the various periods from the late 16th-19th centuries; 2) which word forms — short or long — were most typical of the periods in question and 3) whether or not the syllabic form of the words depended on their function in the sentence or their position in the line. From our sample texts we recorded all the polysyllabic words like cardinal and covetous whose long forms (occupying three syllabic-positions) were used, for example: Yonder is Edward with his flatterers (Marlowe, Edward II, xi, 195); Cardinal, thou art the Pope's chamberlain (Shelley, The Cenci, I, iii, 127). If such a word came at the end of the line, possibly resulting in a dactylic ending, like ravisher in Justice! O, justice, sir against a ravisher (Shirley, The Cardinal, V, iii. 189), they were not recorded, since the type of ending is not an indication of the word form, but yet another "unknown". Then we recorded words used in their short forms (occupying two syllabic positions in the line). For example: No, Edward, no; thy flatterers faint and fly (Marlowe, Edward II, xi, 200); Princes and cardinals, pillars of the church (Shelley, The Cenci, I. ii, 2). Such cases may be interpreted either as abbreviated word forms or as lines containing an extrametrical interictic syllable. Therefore the term "abbreviated form" will be used purely as a convenience. As these examples indicate, the "abbreviated forms" we are most interested in are unapostrophized. However, we did record all the cases of apostrophized syncopated polysyllabic word forms in the two 18th century plays, Pope's Rape of the Lock, and Dryden's Aeneid (excluding verb forms such as rang'd and words like heav'n and ev'n which will be examined separately in the section on the syllabic function of the sonorants). The late 17th-mid 18th centuries were an era of strict syllabic verse. As a result poets almost always apostrophized abbreviated syllabic variants, not merely in isolated instances. The dramatic material was classified into five periods, the nondramatic material into three. The first period of dramatic verse includes seven plays,

24 from Gordobuc (1562) to Hamlet (1603). Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois, with its notable increase in "abbreviated" forms, marks either a new stage in the structural evolution of dramatic verse or a change in the style of theatrical language (or both). Thus the second period encompasses seven plays, from Bussy D'Ambois (1607) to Shirley's The Cardinal (1641) - the last product of the "golden age" of English drama. The third period includes four Restoration plays (two by Dryden, Milton's Samson Agonistes, and Otway's Venice Preserv'd). The fourth period includes only two 18th century plays — Addison's Cato and Home's Douglas (virtually no dramatic verse was written in this century). The final period includes five 19th century plays, from Shelley's The Cenci to Swinburne's Mary Stuart. Since there was less nondramatic verse, fewer periods were chosen. The first period includes the works of 17th century poets, except Dryden, who belongs for all intents and purposes to the tradition of 18th century classical poetry. Thus the second period includes Dryden and the 18th century. The third period covers the 19th century. Jones' pronouncing dictionary was used to verify the present day normative syllabic structure of words whose "abbreviated" syllabic forms were used in poetry. Of course, a dictionary giving the phonetic structures of the words used by one group of persons in the first half of the 20th century cannot serve as an unequivocal indicator of their syllabic structures from the 17th-19th centuries. In the 17th-18th centuries some words might have had normative reduced syllabic variants not given in Jones. However, it seems likely that the much smaller number of words which actually didn't have syncopated variants in earlier periods are included among those not given a normative syncopated variant in Jones (words given a syncopated variant in Jones almost certainly had one in the 17th and 18th centuries as well, for example, misery, victory). We know that tendencies for change coexist with tendencies for stability and continuity in language. Some properties of the phonetic structure of words, for instance, the accentual models of polysyllabic words, have remained unchanged from Old English to the present day (Torsuev, 1962). Thus the state of the language at any given period in its development reflects, to some extent, the tendencies and processes of earlier periods which, in our case, both hindered and encouraged the syncopation of middle vowels. Still another reason for using Jones' dictionary is to establish an arbitrary base line from which the entire corpus of material may be compared. Words used in verse in an "abbreviated" form were divided into two groups: a) those having a normative reduced syllabic form in Jones (for example, general, passenger, misery); b) those not having a normative reduced form (such as enemy, happiness, sacrifice). Tables la and lb show the absolute number and relative percentages of full and abbreviated forms (from groups a and b) for each poet and as a total for each period. There are two

25 indicators for the 18th century plays, Dryden's Aeneid, and Pope's Rape of the Lock', a) excluding apostrophized syncopated forms; b) including apostrophized forms. The totals for the fourth dramatic and second nondramatic periods are also calculated according to these two indicators. As Tables la and lb show, long syllabic forms almost always predominate over the "abbreviated" forms. Long forms would thus appear to represent the linguistic norm for all the periods. Variant b of Dryden's A eneid is an exception, as is the nondramatic verse of Arnold and Tennyson. In the first dramatic period the largest number of long syllabic forms was noted in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy. Indeed, the language of The Spanish Tragedy seems to be slowed down, dragged out (see Chapter 7): this slowness emphasizes the generally elevated style. The number of long forms in the first period ranges from 93.2-65%, the average is 84.9%. In the second period the number of long syllabic forms does not exceed 81.6% and drops as low as 54.4% (Webster, The Duchess of Malfi). The average for this period is only 68.7%. The number of long forms rises in the third period (largely due to Dryden's Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards). The average for the period is 80.2%.

The indicators for the fourth period are interesting. If we consider only the number of unapostrophized abbreviated syllabic word variants (a), then the percentage of full forms increases 10.5% over the third period. However, if we also take into account the apostrophized abbreviated forms (b), the percentage of long forms decreases by 4% from the preceding period. The number of long forms in 19th century drama varies from 97.2% (Browning) to 43.3% (Swinburne). The first quarter of the century (Shelley, Byron) is characterized by a large number of long forms, while the middle and last half of the century are marked by a lower number (Browning is an unexpected exception). The average for the period is 69.4%. The averages for the three nondramatic periods generally resemble those for the dramatic verse. The differences are due to genre distinctions between the two types of verse. Thus Shakespeare's Sonnets contain more long forms than his plays. As in the fourth dramatic period, the indicators for late 17thmid 18th century nondramatic verse are interesting. The percentage of long forms is very high (93.3%) if we discount apostrophized abbreviated syllabic word variants (variant a). However the percentage of long forms drops to 58.4% if we include apostrophized abbreviated forms (variant b). The relatively consistent usage of long syllabic forms in verse allows us to postulate a relative peak in the number of long forms in non-poetic speech from the late 16th-early 17th centuries, then a depression from 1620-1640, followed by another rise in the latter half of the 17th century. The large number of apostrophized forms used in late 17th-mid 18th century verse may show that the short forms were primarily a poetic convention, while in non-

26 poetic speech long forms were quite commonly used. If short forms had been the general norm, there would have been no need to apostrophize every case so carefully. From 1600-1650 words in poetry were, so to say, naturally syncopated (a general speech norm), while between 1700-1750 they were artificially syncopated (a poetic convention). No doubt the "aesthetic" manner of reading verse in vogue in the early part of the 18th century influenced the remarks of theoreticians about the laws governing the syllabic structures of words in poetic and non-poetic speech. According to Fussell (1966, 97-98), the artificial manner of reading verse may have left its imprint on the speech of those social circles who were making a concerted effort to use the "refined" abbreviated word forms. A great number of long syllabic word forms are used at the beginning of the 19th century (Shelley, Byron), tapering off in the second half of the century (Arnold, Tennyson). Again perhaps more was involved than a change in aesthetics (hence in the rhythmical style). Certain tendencies may have been evolving in non-poetic speech as well. In practically all these works abbreviated syllabic word variants registered in Jones predominate over those not listed. Quite a few unapostrophized abbreviated forms not listed in Jones may be observed in the second dramatic period (in Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois, Shakespeare's Cymbeline, Webster's The Duchess of Malfi) as well as in later 19th century works (Tennyson's dramatic and nondramatic verse, Swinburne's dramatic verse). Plays written in the second period have an irregular syllabic form. Some of their lines do not meet the definition of iambic pentameters. These plays contain lines with 2,3,4,6,7, and even 9 ictuses, replies such as Saw? Who? , as well as entire short segments in prose (in addition to the long chunks of uninterrupted prose found in most 17th century plays). "Non-iambic pentameter" lines comprise 2.5% of the verse text of Hamlet, 3.5%of Cymbeline, 4.6% of The Changeling, and 11.5% of The Duchess of Malfi. There are obvious instances of interictic extrametrical syllables at word junctures. In such syllabically variable texts words that are theoretically trisyllabic often occupy two syllabic positions. Some examples: To the smothering of the sense ~ how far it is; Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain (Cymbeline,, III,i.57; II,v,25) or In this foolish practice but the ingredients Were lenitive poisons, such as are of force {The Duchess of Malfi, III,i,74-75). We may assume that when trisyllabic words like covetings or lenitive which do not have normative syncopated variants occupied two syllabic positions in irregular verse, the actor was not obliged to pronounce them disyllabically; rather, it was left to his discretion to give them two or three syllables (also see Scholl, 1944; Partridge, 1964). As indicated by an almost total avoidance of syllabic duplications at word junctures, the syllabic structure of 19th century verse tragedies is stricter. It may be that 19th century dramatic verse (whose authors were concerned

27 about the syllabic equivalency of the lines) was "programmed" to include only those polysyllabic words which had a normative abbreviated syllabic variant (see Browning and Swinburne). Eighteenth and nineteenth century verse are similar in their syllabic strictness, though in the former obligatory syncopation was signalled by an apostrophe. Thus the use of syncopated trisyllabic words to fill two syllabic positions in verse was most obligatory in the first half of the 18th century, least obligatory from 1610-1640; 19th century verse falls between the two extremes. The second stage of the analysis was a search for the long equivalents to the unapostrophized "abbreviated" word forms used in dramatic verse and not listed in Jones as normative. The fourth period was not examined since no unapostrophized "abbreviated" forms were found. The material of the first two periods was combined. For each period we chose a group consisting only of the words most frequently used: a) in both long and "abbreviated" forms; b) words used more than once in an "abbreviated" form only; c) words used more than once in a long form only. Groups b and c also include abbreviated and long forms which were used only once in the particualar period, but which reoccurred in other periods. All these words are listed below. The bracketed letters denote the part of speech or, in the case of participles, the word form ("part."). The bracketed numbers are first, the absolute number of long forms, second, the number of "short" forms. a) Words used in both long and "short" forms Periods 1 and 2\ ceremony (n; 2-1), character (n; 1-2), countenance (n; 4-2), coveted (v; 1-0), covetings (n; 0-1), enemy (n; 9-14), flatterer (-s), flattery (n; 34), flattering (part; 5-0), followers (n; 2-2), Gaveston (n; 3-30), happily (adv; 2-2), happiness (n; 2-7); imminent (adj; 1-1), insolence (n; 0-2), insolent (adj; 1-1), majesty (n; 2-18), melancholy (n; 1-4), minister, ministring (v; 3-1), Mortimer (n; 2-21), murderer, murtherer (n; 8-12), nativity (n; 1-2), policy, politics (n; 0-3), politic (adj; 4-0), remedy (n; 1-6), timorous (adj; 1-1). Period 3: enemies (n; 2-14). Period 5: butterfly (n; 1-2), ceremony (n; 1-1), chancellor (n; 1-1), enemy (-ies) (n; 5-1), happiness (n; 14), happily (adv; 0-3), heresy (n; 1-2), heretic (n; 2-2), jealousy (n; 1-1). b) Words used only in a "short" form Periods 1 and 2: amorous (adj; 3), beggary (n; 2), calamity (n; 1), degenerate (adj; 1), eminent (adj; 2), generate (adj; 1), magnanimity (n; 1), ominous (adj; 3), particular (adj; 4), popular (adj; 1), privilege (n; 2), secular (adj; 1), tottering (part; 1), verily (adv; 2). Period 3: beggary (n; 1), degenrate (adj; 1), flattering (part; 1), magnanimous (adj; 1), popular (adj; 2), recovery (n; 1), tottering (part; 1).

28 Period 5: calamity (n; 1), easily (adv; 3), flattering (part; 1), following (part; 1), gallery (n; 2), policy (-ies) (n; 3), popular (adj; 1), recovery (n; 1), remedies (n; 1), secular (adj; 1), titular (adj; 2), tottering (part; 1). c) Words used only in a long form Periods 1 and 2: Balthazar (n; 10), capitol (n; 5), character (n; 2), chastity (n; 2), company (n; 16), counselor (n; 4), courtesie (n; 2), dignitie (n; 3), divinity (n; 2), governance (n; 3), gravity (n; 3), heritage (n; 2), Hieronimo (n; 26), ignorant (adj; 2), infamy (n; 3), innocence (n; 3), innocent (adj; 1), jealousy (n; 3), liberate (n; 2), Londoner (n; 2), nobility (n; 2), presently (adv; 4), punishment (n; 2), sacrifice (n; 4), villainy (n; 2). Period 3: accident (n; 2), amorous (adj; 1), argument (n; 2), character (n; 2), company (n; 2), councellors (n; 1), easily (adv; 2), infamy (n; 1), jealousy (n; 3), liberty (n; 3), luxury (n; 3), murtherer (n; 3), nobility (n; 1), Philistines (n; 2), politic (adj; 1), prodigies (n; 2), prodigal (n; 3), sacrifice (n; 2), senator (n; 2), treacherous (adj; 2), utterly (adv; 2). Period 5: agony (n; 2), amorous (adj; 1), avenue (n; 2), company (n; 4), councellor (n; 3), femininely (adv; 2), festivity (n; 2), Guendolen (n; 8), ignorant (adj; 2), infamy (n; 2), innocence (n; 1), innocent (adj; 2), jealousy (n; 1), Lutheran (n; 2), luxury (n; 1), majesty (n; 3), merriment (n; 2), minister (n; 2), monument (n; 3), murderer (n; 1), negligence (n; 2), pitiful (adj; 2), presently (adv; 2), punishment (n; 7), sacrifice (n; 3), sepulchre (n; 2), sovereign (n; 1), tyranny (n; 2), verily (adv; 1). Let's first consider the features of the sound structure of these words. In periods 1 and 2 the sounds r, I, m, and n follow a "syncopatable" vowel in 72.6% of the short forms of words having both short and long variants, in 96% of the words having only a short form, and only in 54% of the words having only a long form. In the third period all the "abbreviated" forms contain r, I, m, or n, while only 50% of the long forms do. Thus in the 17th century an unstressed vowel was in fact easily reduced before r, I, m, or n. The same tendency is operative in the 19th century, though less markedly: the sounds r, I, m, and n are contained in 61.6% of the short forms of words having both short and long variants, in 72.3% of the words having only short forms, and in 63.3% of the words used only in the long form. Thus in 17th century verse the unstressed vowels were syncopated primarily before r, I, m, or n, while in the 19th century they were syncopated before other consonants as well. Next comes a lexical-grammatical analysis. In the first two periods, adjectives and participles used attributively comprise 19.3% of the short forms of words having both short and long variants, 68.0% of the words having only a short form, and only 2.4% of the words used exclusively in the long form. A similar regularity may be observed in the third period: adjectives and

29 participles used attributively comprise 75% of the words used only in the short form, and only 9.1%of the words used exclusively in the long form. The same tendency, though less strikingly expressed, is also noticeable in 19th century verse. In this period, practically all the words used in both long and short forms are nouns; adjectives of participles used attributively comprise 38.8% of the words used exclusively in the short form, but only 10.3% of the words used exclusively in the long form. Thus, adjectives and participles used attributively are significantly more easily reduced than nouns (see also Konig, 1888, 22). Nouns used attributively display the same phenomenon. Compare: Find out the murtherers; let them be known and With murtherer thieves that came to rifle me (Arden of Faversham, XIV, 408; IV, 95); The Cardinal! Cause we express no scene, but The cardinal's nephew, madam, Don Columbo (Shirley, The Cardinal, Prologue, 1; I,ii,94). This is why majesty is syncopated in the line from Gorboduc quoted earlier: Your majesty's faithful and most humble subject(III,i, 42). The only possible explanation for reduction here is accentual subordination, the weakening of stress in adjectives and other words used prepositionally and attributively, unlike the constant strong stress of the more syntactically autonomous words such as nouns. The syllabic structure of the word is also determined by its position in the line. Thus, lines are usually terminated by long forms, while words in midline are frequently syncopated. For example: With these, O, these accursed murderers but Forgives the murderers of thy noble son (Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, IV,iii,161; IV,ii,33). Once again the difference is explained by the degree of phrasal stress: a word in the middle of the line falls in the middle of the syntagm, a word at the end of the line terminates the syntagm (as we know, the last stress of the syntagm is the strongest). Some words have clearly evolved from a syncopated to a full syllabic form. Thus the word spirit came to be predominantly disyllabic rather than monosyllabic. From the late 16th-mid 17th century, poets almost always treated spirit as a monosyllable: The undaunted spirit of Percy was appeased (Marlowe, Edward II, i,113); Arden, cheer up thy spirits, and droop no more\ (Arden of Faversham, 1,1); More than the locking of the spirit a time (Shakespeare, Cymbeline, I,v,40). But in Shirley, spirit has already become disyllabic: And most exalted spirit. Pride in him (The Cardinal, I,i,24). Later the disyllabic form became standard for spirit and words derived from it. Its use as a monosyllable in 19th century verse may represent a stylization of earlier poetry. Some examples of a disyllabic and monosyllabic spirit: Spiritless, void of honour, one who has sold (Otway, Venice Preserv'd, IV, 245); Does not his spirit live in all that breathe (Shelley, The Cenci, V,iv,70); Eternal spirit of the chainless Mind (Byron, The Prisoner of Chillon, Sonnet, 1) but: That spectral form, deemed that the Spirit of wind (Shelley, Alastor; or the Spirit of Solitude, 259).

30 Conclusions Syncopated word forms are less normal than full forms. The widest use of full forms in verse came from the late 16th-early 17th centuries and in the early 19th century; abbreviated forms were used more often from 1610-1750 and in the last half of the 19th century. These findings may be indicative of trends in nonpoetic speech as well. Syncopation occurred easily before r, I, m, and n in the 17th century and probably before other consonants as well in the 19th century. Syntactically and semantically subordinated prepositional elements are easily syncopated. This indicates that these elements are accentually weakened.

5. The syllabic function of sonorants As we mentioned, most linguists feel that any consonant + sonorant combination is syllabic in English. In some studies further qualifications are adduced. Thus Gimson (1970, 189) notes that the sonorant [n] has a greater syllabic capability than [m] or [ t j ] . I f the consonant + sonorant combination is followed by a vowel (in the same word or across a word boundary) the sonorant may not be syllabic, as in gluttony, capable of affable and (Jones, 1956a, 215, 56; Kokeritz, 1953, 266-267). Kenyon (1966, 92, 70) makes the interesting observation that sonorants are syllabic only after certain consonants. Thus nasal sonorants preceded by other nasal sonorants are not syllabic; therefore, the variants of common and venom with reduced unstressed second vowels are monosyllables. Nor is a nasal sonorant syllabic when preceded by [1] ; thus Milne and elm are monosyllabic. However, the combination of a nasal sonorant + [1] may be syllabic. Thus even if the second vowel is reduced, channel and tunnel are disyllabic. In Kenyon's opinion, the combinations [0m] , [6m] , [sm] , and [sm] are usually not syllabic. Therefore words like rhythm, prizm, and chasm are usually monosyllabic. If they are pronounced as two syllables, a schwa [a] emerges: ['rieamij'pnzam]. Jones gives the same transcription of prizm in his dictionary: monosyllabic [prizm] and disyllabic ['prizam]i Jones lists chasm and rhythm only as monosyllables. In order to clarify the features of the syllabic function of consonant + sonorant combinations, we recorded every word from our texts containing such a combination which was, judging by the metrical structure of the line, a) syllabic or b) nonsyllabic. All the cases were classified a) according to the sonorant and b) according to the consonant. The results are presented in Tables 2a and 2b. Since there was more dramatic verse, each period has been examined separately. The nondramatic verse has been combined. The first eight consonant + sonorant combinations include a plosive, the remainder

31 include a fricative or a second sonorant. Tables 2a and 2b reveal that a plosive + sonorant combination is almost always syllabic. "Nonsyllabic" plosive + sonorant combinations are commoner in the more irregular 17th and 19th century verse than in the syllabically regular verse of the first half of the 18th century. Thus all poets were aware of the syllabic capability of these combinations. "Nonsyllabic" plosive + sonorant combinations usually occur under the following circumstances. 1) If the plosive + sonorant combination precedes a vowel or -h. Some examples: Know that the people of Rome, for whom we stand (Shakespeare,. Titus Andronicus, I,i,21); Out of this sensible hell! She's warm, she breathes (Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, IV,ii,361); That I should bear him visible in my hand (Swinburne, Mary Stuart, V,i,l 14); Pain for the girdle, and sorrow upon thine head (Swinburne, A Ballad of Burdens, 31). 2) If the plosive + sonorant combination occurs in the middle of the word. The combination [zn] is apparently syllabic at the end of prison, nonsyllabic in the middle of prisoner. Compare this early prison of their bones and the proudest prisoner of the Goths (Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus). This is also noticeable in the pairs noble and noblest, gentle and gentleman: the noble son, but the noblest that survive (Titus Andronicus); her gentle heart, but a gentleman usher (Webster, The Duchess of Malfi). 3) If the plosive + sonorant combination terminates a polysyllabic adjective like unappealable, invisible, or irresistable. For example: And skills in Neptune's deep invisible paths (Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois, I,i,21); Why, 'tis impossible thou canst be so wicked (Middleton and Rowley, The Changeling, III,iv,122); By irresistible streams, some wretch might strive (Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, VI,vi,2). 4) If the plosive + sonorant combination occurs in a title or kinship term, for example: Uncle Marcus, since it is my father's mind (Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, V,iii,l). As in cases of syncopation, the accentual weakening of semantically subordinated words apparently plays a role. These factors may both be at'work, as in immovable eyes, discomfortable and dun, unseasonable increase. The [bl] combination rarely ever loses its syllabic capability for reasons other than those cited above. These exceptions are found mainly in 17th century plays, for example: And tell me, would the rebels deny me that? (Marlowe, Edward II, xi, 101). We are possibly dealing with an extrametrical interictic syllable here, or it may be that the syllabic capability of the [bl] combination was not as great in this period as it subsequently became. The syllabic function of the [kl] and [pi] combinations has apparently grown. Before 1650 instances of a nonsyllabic [kl] or [pi] may be found, for example: Uncle Marcus, since it is my father's mind (Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, V,iii,l); Of the abashed oracle, that, for fear (Chapman, Bussy

32 d'Ambois, V,iii,51); Unto the people. For other obligations (Webster, The Duchess of Ma I f i , II,v, 35). Such instances disappear after about 1650. This indicates either that the verse was becoming more syllabically regular or that the sonority (and hence the syllabic capability) of the sonorants was increasing. The nonsyllabic [pi] and [kl] may be vestiges of earlier periods. Chaucer, for example, always used peple as a monosyllable if the following word began with a vowel o r -h. Some examples: Than were your peple in soveryn hertes reste; And to the peple he seyde in this manere; Unnethe the peple hir knew for hir faimesse; Was oftevertuhid, the peple him helde (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, E, "The Clerk's Tale", 112, 368,384, 426). Thus, the syllabic structure of a word with a constant phonemic substructure may thus be subject to a historically conditioned variation (see also Wells, 1965, 113). Combinations of a sonorant or a fricative + a sonorant are not always syllabic. The combinations [fl] , [si] , [/n] , and [ s n ] are more regularly syllabic than the rest, for example: With murtherer thieves that came to rjjle me (Arden of Faversham, IV, 95); The fish swam by the castle wall (Byron, The Prisoner of Chillon, 351); A vision to the sleep of him who spurned (Shelley, Alastor, 204); With his still soul. At night a passion came (Alastor, 224). Combinations of [/] , [s] , [/] , and [3] + a sonorant are often nonsyllabic in the same circumstances as a plosive + sonorant combination. In Till the great ployer's human whistle amazed (Tennyson, Geraint and Enid, 49) the nonsyllabic [si] precedes a vowel across a word boundary. The final [ / n ] in the noun passion is usually syllabic but in the middle of the longer adjective passionate or the adverb passionately — it is not: At night a passion came but Strangers have wept to hear his passionate notes (Shelley, Alastor, 224; 64); May break it, when his passion masters him but Perhaps because he loved her passionately (Tennyson, Geraint and Enid, 43; 10). A possible reason for the syllabic [/n] and [ 311] is the gliding [a] sound between the consonants. The combinations [zl] , [zn] , [sn] , and [sm] are syllabically ambivalent. The [sm] combination forms a syllabic least often. Some examples: Their ranks with bloodier chasm:—into the plain; Even like a bark, which from a chasm of mountains; All wrecks of Ocean to their chasm, the sway (Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, VI,vi,6; I,iii,l; IV,xv,6). Some examples of a syllabic [zn]: He shall to prison, and there die in bolts (Marlowe, Edward II, i, 196); Yet then my judgement knew no reason why (Shakespeare, Sonnet 115, 3); A wider prison unto me (Byron, The Prisoner of Chillon, 323). Some examples of nonsyllabic [zn] : A prison may best beseem his holiness (Marlowe, Edward II, i, 206); A deeper prison and heavier chains did find; And ye have chosen your lot- your fame must be (Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, II,vi,5; XI,xxi, 3); The sun by this had men, and clear'd the fog (Arnold, Sohrab and Rustum, 104).

33 Some examples of syllabic and nonsyllabic [zl]: The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog (Shakespeare, Henry IV, part 2,IV,v,128); but: Cover her face! Mine eyes dazzle; she died young (Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, IV,ii,279). In the great majority of cases, the combinations [vl], [vn], [lm], [In], and [mn] are nonsyllabic. Instances of nonsyllabic [vn] and [In] are especially numerous. Some examples of nonsyllabic [vn]: Yes, sir, to Milford-Haven; which is the way? (Shakespeare, Cymberline, III,ii,48); Who heaven itself for ornament doth use (Shakespeare, Sonnet 21, 3); Oft have we known that sevenfold fence to fail (Pope, The Rape of the Lock, 11,119); Was cloven: beneath the planet sate a Form; Hymns which my soul had woven to freedom, strong; That even from gold the dreadful strength was gone; "Since this", the old man said, "seven years are spent" (Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, I,lvii,2; II, xxviii,6; V,xxxviii,3; IV,xi,6). Syllabic [vn] begins to occur relatively more often in 20th century verse. Some examples: And red and even redder grew the General's shaven gill (Kipling, A Code of Morals, 30); Towards heaven still (Frost, After ApplePicking, 2). Nonsyllabic [vn] in 20th century verse: But masterful Heaven had intervened to save it (Yeats, The Circus Animals' Desertion, 20); Up in your nursery world- all heaven for me (Sassoon, The Child at the Window, 8). One generally gets the impression that the syllabic function of the [vn] combination has increased in 20th century poetry. Of course this general observation ought to be verified statistically. Some examples of nonsyllabic [In]: With swollen disdain against mine legal rule (Norton and Sackville, Gorboduc, IV,ii,86); Or else be stolen; therefore I'll stay behind (Arden of Faversham, X, 27); Force my swoln heart no further; I would save thee (Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy, IV,i,76); O I had fallen as my brave fathers fell (Home, Douglas, V, 205); Appolo, hast thou stolen away (Cowper, Ode to Appollo, II); "Iam..." - "Alas! What has befallen thee, child?"; Must have befallen my brothers." - Fear not, Child" (Shelley, The Cenci, II,i,68; I,iii,34). Some examples of nonsyllabic [vl], [lm], [zm],and [mn ] : And pledge with thee the mighty Devil in Hell (Shelley, The Cenci, I,iii,83); The realm of a stern Ruler, yawned; behind; To evil thoughts; - A film then overcast ('Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, II,vi,7 and V,xii,3); Or seen, from many a prism within the cave (The Revolt of Islam, VII,xx,4); Thy breath smells of lemon pills. Would thou hadst done! (Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, II,i,143). In the last example, the word lemon is syncopated and monosyllabic.

34 Conclusions Consonant + sonorant combinations stand somewhere between syllable and nonsyllable. Judging from their function in verse, plosive + sonorant combinations have a significantly greater syllabic capability than fricative + sonorant combinations. Sonorant + sonorant combinations are the least likely to form a syllable (see also Wells, 1965, 112). Fricative or sonorant + -sonorant combinations may be divided into three groups: 1) those which are usually syllabic: [fl], [si], [/n], [3n]; 2) those which are ambivalent: [zl] , [zn] , [sn] , [sm] , [si] ; 3) those usually nonsyllabic: [vl], [vn], [lm], [In], [mn]. The syllabic features of certain fricative + sonorant combinations reveal that the syllabic structure of a word with a constant phonemic substructure may vary synchronically. The following factors may help reduce the syllabic capability of a consonant + sonorant combination: 1) a succeeding vowel or -h (the gurgle of water)\ 2) placement in the middle rather than the end of the word (the gentleman usher); 3) the syntactic function of the word and its position in the sentence (Uncle Marcus; terrible father). The ambivalent syllabic nature of consonant + sonorant combinations gives the poet a choice; this choice in turn becomes one of the features of his individual style (thus Swinburne used nonsyllabic consonant + sonorant combinations more often than other 19th century poets). The syllabic capability of certain consonant + sonorant combinations has apparently increased. Thus, the syllabic structures of words may vary diachronically, even though their phonemic substructures remain the same.

6. The syllabic function of the triphthongs [aua] and [ais] . The syllabic features of the so-called triphthongs [aua] and [aia] are usually related to the morphological structures of words. We have already mentioned that Jones considers the simple words hire, dire, and flour monosyllabic: [haia], [dial , [flaus] and the suffixed higher, dyer, and plougher disyllabic: [hai-a], [dai-s], [plau-a] . However, in verse these words may sometimes occupy either one or two syllabic positions regardless of their morphological structure. Thus, in Shakespeare, flower, hour, tired, and fire are used both monosyllabically and disyllabically. Some examples of monosyllabic variants: Of different flowers in odor and in hue (Sonnet 98, 6); To find out shames and idle hours in me (Sonnet 61, 7); Tired with all these, for restful death I cry; Tired with all these, from these I would be gone (Sonnet 66, \ ,\3)\And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep (Sonnet 153, 3).

35 Some examples of disyllabic variants: Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered (Sonnet 124, 4); One hour's storm will drown the fragrant mead (Titus Andronicus, II,iv,54); What hour is it? -Almost midnight, madam (Cymbeline, II,ii,2); The beast that bears me, tired with my woe (Sonnet 50, 5); Away with him! and make a fire straight {Titus Andronicus, I,i,127). The use of such words as monosyllables in verse has been variously appraised. Thus, König (1888, 50-52) regards the disyllabic variants as normal and contends that Shakespeare was using archaic, even Middle English forms. Kökeritz, however, (1953, 286-291) sees the normative variants of the triphthongs in trial, diamond, liable, and violence as disyllabic, and those in fire and our as monosyllabic. Apparently the final [a] of the triphthongs may be either lost or developed and become more distinct due to the influence of the syllabic form of the verse. Scholl (1944, 398-445) also speaks of vowel reduction in words like diamond. In her opinion, this reduction is especially common before a final and still spoken -r (as in fire or briar). However, reduction does not occur if the suffix is -er (higher, flyer). Words ending in -ower and -our having a final spoken -r are most often monosyllables; among the disyllabic variants, the -ower ending predominates (flower, bower). Sprott (1953, 55-56) supposes that words like bower, flower, and shower occupy an intermediate position between monosyllables and disyllables (he calls them "hypermonosyllables"). Partridge (1964, 100) considers that words like fire, hour, power, violet, violence, prayer, seeing, and being have had equally valid syllabic variants. However, the verse form, itself variable, did not specify that only one of these variants, for example, the short form, was to be used. The choice of a variant depended on the reader's taste. Syllabic word variants containing the triphthongs [aia] , [aua], and [era] as well as certain diphthongs, are present in English poetry of all ages. Below we describe the preferred use of the monosyllabic and disyllabic variants of the triphthongs [aua] and [aw] in late 16th-19th century verse (also see Tables 3a, b and 4a,b). When apostrophized words of the type pow'r occupied one syllabic position in verse, it was assumed that the poet considered them normally disyllabic. Judging by the findings of our analysis of dramatic verse, the triphthong [aua] has always been predominantly monosyllabic. However, it went through a stage of syllabic variability before becoming so. The monosyllabic form of hour appeared early on; the disyllabic variant is found only in dramatic verse written during the first two periods (and then always spelled hower). The word flower kept a rare disyllabic variant into the 19th century: The Queen, and been rejected. - Flower, she! (Tennyson, Queen Mary, I,iv,33). The late 17th-18th centuries are somewhat better represented in the non-

36 dramatic than in the dramatic verse. The frequency of certain words in nondramatic verse may be responsible for the discrepancy between the findings for the dramatic and nondramatic verse. Judging by the nondramatic verse, the disyllabic variant to the triphthong was most common in the 18th century. To be sure, Pope never apostrophizes hour or our, but only flow'r, pow'r, and tow'r. However, Swift uses even the possessive pronoun our as a disyllable. It may be that in the 18th century what Sprott calls the "hypermonosyllabic" triphthong [aug] did not become disyllabic, but simply that poets were concerned with achieving complete syllabic uniformity among their lines and considered it necessary to "remove" the third element of the triphthong. In any event, it is quite clear that the triphthong [aua] has lost its disyallbic variant in the 19th century. Some examples of the unfrequent disyllabic [aua]: In all distress of our Friends; For how can stony Bowels melt (Swift, Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, 7; 215); Sole, like some single tower, which a chief (Arnold, Sohrab and Rustum, 337); Faint grape-flowers are cloven honey-cake (Swinburne, At Eleusis, 137); And bosom flowerful; her face more fair (Swinburne, St. Dorothy, 46). Since we are investigating the syllabic properties of the triphthong [aw] both in relationship to its graphic representation and the etymological and morphological structure of the word in which it occurs, all cases were classified as either "simple" or "complex". The "simple" category includes native English and loan words like fire, hire, desire, and aspire where the triphthong is represented by /' + re. The "complex" category includes: 1) "simple" words with plural or past tense suffixes (fires, fired) and other suffixed words where the triphthong belongs to both the root and the suffix (higher, flyer, liar)-, fiery was considered a "simple" form since the triphthong is not shared between root and suffix, but remains within the root; 2) loan words like giant, violent, and lion, where the triphthong is represented by two consecutive vowel letters. Loan words, then, were classified as "simple" if they were originally pronounced with a single vowel in the place of the future triphthong (aspire, desire) and "complex" if two vowels were pronounced (Dian, lion, triumph). Here the averages for dramatic and nondramatic verse are similar. "Simple" triphthongs have clearly passed through a stage of syllabic variability and become completely monosyllabic. In the first half of the 17th century, the disyllabic [ai-a] disappears from words like fire and desire. "Complex" triphthongs are syllabically variable in the 17th century (1610-1640 is the period in which they are most often "contracted"), 100% disyllabic in the 18th century, and again fluctuate between one and two syllables in the 19th century. For example: The fillet of my diadem: the first time and A diadem around it. — Sire, I deem'd (Byron, Sardanapalus, III, i,368; 130).

37 It is interesting that the monosyllabic [aw] is usually found in adjectives, while the disyllabic [ai-s] is found mostly in nouns and verbs. The syllabic characteristics of the triphthong [ara] in the adjective violent and the noun violence as used in dramatic verse are listed below. (The data for each period is in absolute numbers, the totals are given in percentages and absolute numbers (bracketed)):

Period

I II III IV V Total

violent (adj.) [aw] (1 syll.) 7 8 1

violence (n.)

[ai-a] (2 syll.) 1 3

[aw] (1 syll.)

_ —

_

-

_

—

—

2

-

81.8 (18)

4

18.2 (4)

26.6 (4)

[ai-o] (2 syll.) 4 3 1

_ 2

73.4 (11)

As the figures show, the triphthong [aw] is more often monosyllabic in the adjective violent, more often disyllabic in the noun violence. Once again the accentual weakening which caused the syncopation of prepositional adjectives without affecting nouns played a role. Some examples of a monosyllabic [aw] in violent and a disyallbic [ai-a] in violence: Their violent shot resembling th' ocean's rage (Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, I,i,48); Must go upon their knees. Come, violent death (Webster, The Duchess of Malfl, IV,iii,249); but: Nor shall you do my ear that violence (Shakespeare, Hamlet, I,ii,170); Blows up with sudden violence and horror (Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois, V,ii,19). Compare He is a violent tyrant, surely child with 'Tis strange! There were clear marks of violence (Shelley, The Cenci, I,iii,77 and IV,iv,71).

Conclusions The so-called triphthongs [aus] and [aw] demonstrate a diachronic and synchronic syllabic ambivalence in verse. However, they are not syllabically variable to the same extent. The triphthong [aua] is generally more often monosyllabic than disyllabic; words ending in -our show a stronger tendency to be monosyllabic than those ending in -ower. The syllabic features of [aw] are directly dependent on the graphic representation of the triphthong as well as the etymology and morphological features of the word in which it occurs and the syntactic function of that word in the sentence. The so-called "simple" [aw] triphthongs passed through

38 a stage of some syllabic variability and then became definitely monosyllabic. The "complex" [ais] went through a stage of syllabic ambivalency in the 17th century, became consistently disyallbic in the 18th century, and then reverted to syllabic ambivalence in the 19th century. The shifting syllabic character of the triphthongs accounts for rhymes like fire-higher. The triphthong is usually monosyllabic in fire, usually disyllabic in higher. However, either may switch categories or, as Sprott contends, remain "hypermonosyllabic" — half way between being monosyllabic and disyllabic. Identifying the typical syllabic characteristics of the triphthongs is important for the syllabic and accentual interpretation of verse. Thus Retire to your chamber, insolent girl! (Shelley, The Cenci, 1,111,145) has two syllabic interpretations and hence, two rythmical variants: 1) retire has two syllables, insolent three; 2) retire has three syllables, insolent is syncopated and has two. In the first case the rhythm of the line departs greatly from the meter: there are rhythmic inversions in two consecutive words (chamber, insolent). The second rhythmical variant corresponds more to the meter. The entire line is more drawn out, less tense. We recall that the triphthong has a simple graphic representation in retire and is pronounced as a monosyllable. This suggests that the poet has orchestrated the line to be condensed, jerky, and sped up; after all, this is the enraged Count Cenci driving Beatrice from the room as she pleads frantically with the guests to save her from her tyrant-father. Indeed, is surely monosyllabic in the next line as Beatrice answers her father: Retire thou, impious man! Ay, hide thyself (\,i\i,\Ab). findings on long and syncopated word forms and on the syllabic character of consonant + sonorant combinations into account. NOTES 1 We can list only a few of the many investigations which have used poetry as an indicator of the general phonetic features of the language of the period (Bernstein, 1922; Gabrielson, 1909; Grigoi'ev 1971; Dobson, 1957, 1967; Jespersen, 1961; Kökeritz, 1953; König, 1888; Kosutic, 1919; Lieberman, 1965; Metreveli, 1966;Panov, 1967; Reformatskij, 1971; Sipe, 1968; Scholl, 1944; Ellis, 1871). Ellis, and particularly Dobson, also analyze the prescriptions of 17th century grammarians, orthoepists, and lexicographers. 2 Jones gives the most complete breakdown of the styles of pronunciation, including stages pronunciation (1956a, 64, 13): 1) the rapid familiar style; 2) the slower colloquial style; 3) the naturyal style used in addressing a fair-sized audience; 4) the acquired style of the stage; and 5) the acquired style used in singing. 3 In the opinion of phoneticists, English has no true triphthongs; vowel combinations like [aia] and [aua] can only be called triphthongs for convenience sake (Jones, 1956a, 233, 60; Jones, 1956b, 184 and note 4, 59; Torsuev, 1969, 31). 4 The dramatic verse: Norton and Sackville, Gorboduc; Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy; anon. Arden of Faversham; Marlowe, Edward II; Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Hamlet, Cymbeline\ Ben Jonson, Sejanus; Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois; Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy, Webster, The Duchess of Maifi; Middleton and Rowley, The

39 Changeling; F-'ord, Perkin Warbeck\ Shirley, The Cardinal; Drydcn, The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards, part II, and All For Love; Milton, Samson Agonistes; Otway, Venice Preserv'd; Addison, Cato\ Home, Douglas; Shelley, The Cenci\ Byron, Sardanapalus; Browning, A Blot in the 'Scutcheon-, Tennyson, Queen Mary, Swinburne, Mary Stuart. The nondrainatic verse: Shakespeare, 45 sonnets; Donne, the elegies Jealosie, The Anagram, The Perfume, The Dreame, A Tale of a Citizen and His Wife, Going to Bed: fragments from Satyre II, An Anatomie of the World, Of the Progress of the Soule; Holy Sonnets. I. IV, V, VI, VIII, X, XVIII; Dryden, The Aeneid; Pope, The Rape of the Lock; Swift, Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift (484 lines); Shelley, The Revolt of Islam; Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; Arnold, Sohrab and Rustum; Tennyson, Geraint and Enid; Swinburne, A Ballad of Burdens, At Eleusis, St. Dorothy, The Two Dreams.

2 VERSE AND WORD STRESS

1. The problem of Middle English word stress In this chapter we will investigate the accentual structure of disyllabic and trisyllabic Middle and early modern English words belonging to these categories: 1) native-English words {lady, loveth, werking, goodnesse, husbondes, godspell); 2) French loan words honour, citee,, noblesse)', 3) hybrid words (goddesse, plesing). The accentual structures of native-English and hybrid words are the most complex. As one can see from the examples, native-English words may be classified according to the following morphological models: a) simple words; b) words with inflectional suffixes; c) words with derivational suffixes (with or without a final -e); d) words with both types of suffixes; e) compound words. Hybrid words may be assigned to two models: a) native English root + Romance suffix; b) Romance root + native English suffix. Verse written in Middle and early modern English from the 12th-16th centuries served as the material for the investigation. 1 It was convenient to use Middle English verse because it is basically syllabo-tonic, i.e. it has a regular stress pattern (for details see Chapter 4). Middle English verse is an alternation of strong syllabic positions (ictuses) and weak syllabic positions (non-ictuses). Of course, the syllabo-tonic principle is not as strict in Middle English verse as in, say, classical modern English metrical verse. However, one can verify the existence of the metrical scheme one discerns in listening to Middle English verse by simply counting the number of strong stresses on the odd and even positions of the lines. It turns out that the average stress on the ictic (even) positions always exceeds 80%, and never exceeds 10% on the nonictic (odd) positions. This justifies using the ictic and non-ictic syllabic positions in the verse as one indicator of the stress or nonstress of the syllables occupying them. The strongly stressed syllables of polysyllabic words usually occupy the strong syllabic positions in syllabo-tonic verse, while the adjoining weakly stressed syllables usually occupy the weak syllabic positions. When a strongly stressed syllable of a polysyllabic word occupies an ictus and the adjoining weakly stressed syllable occupies a non-ictus, we may say that the word corresponds with the meter 2 :

41 (1) As any swalwe sitting on a heme (2) Myn housbond is so ful of jalousye (3) The window she undoth and that in haste, (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Miller's Tale. 72, 108, 541). When a strongly stressed syllable in a w o r d o c c u p i e s a non-ictus and the adjoining w e a k l y stressed syllable o c c u p i e s an ictus, w e say that t h e w o r d d o e s n o t c o r r e s p o n d w i t h the meter: (1) And solitarie he was, and ever allone, And wailing all the night, making his mone (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Knight's Tale", 507-508) (2) So moot I thryve, I shal, at cokkes crowe, Ful prively knokken at hir windowe. (The Miller's Tale, 4 8 9 4 9 0 ) . Cases w h e r e w o r d and m e t e r d o n o t c o r r e s p o n d in m o d e r n English p o e t r y are usually restricted t o the beginning o f t h e line: Trembling begins the sacred rites of" Pride (Pope, The Rape of the Lock, I, 128) Happy is England! I could be content (Keats, the sonnet Happy is England, 1). Word and m e t e r fail t o c o r r e s p o n d m u c h m o r e o f t e n in Middle

English

p o e t r y ; the distribution o f " n o n c o r r e s p o n d e n c e s " w i t h i n the line is freer, t e n d i n g n o t t o w a r d s t h e beginning, b u t the end: Jesus that is of hevene king, Yeve us alle His swete blessing (King Horn, 1541-1542) When Orfeo herd that tiding Never him nas wers for no thing. (Sir Orfeo, 73-74) And han deiyt in wikkednesse As gode folk han in goodnesse (Chaucer, The House of Fame, 1831-1832) I say: and ful eek of windowes As flakes falle in grete snowes (The House of Fame, 1191-1192) Pandare answerde and seyde, "Alas the whyle That I was born; Have I not seyd er this, That dremes many a maner man bigyle?" (Chaucer, Troilusand Criseyde, V, 1275-1277)

42 That ye to me assente as in this thing Shewe now your pacience in your werking. (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Clerk's Tale", 4 9 4 4 9 5 ) Their-to she coude skippe and make game As any kide or calf folwinge his dame. (The Canterbury Tales, "The Miller's Tale", 73-74).

There is no doubt where the stress belongs in a modern English polysyllabic word which does not correspond to the meter. One could hardly stress trembling in Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride on the second syllable. However, the accentual structure of Middle English noncorrespondences is often puzzling. For example, in the lines from Chaucer quoted above, how are we to read blessing, tiding, and werking, which occupy the final stress groups and whose second syllable (the suffix -ing) rhymes with the autonomous strongly stressed words king and thing'} In this period, French loan words are known to have accentual doublets stressed either on the first or second syllables. In accordance with the common Germanic semantic stress rule, native English words should apparently have been stressed on the first syllable (the root). However, the number of instances in Middle English verse where the word stress does not correspond with the meter, especially at the end of the line, forces us to assume that these words were stressed on the second syllable. In future, therefore, the word "noncorrespondence" will be used in quotes. The origin of native English and hybrid "noncorrespondences" in Middle English verse may be interpreted several ways. (1) We might assume that "noncorrespondences" in 12th-14th century verse are merely an indication that the verse form had not yet crystallized, while the "noncorrespondences" occurring in 15th century verse are evidence that the verse form is already being corrupted. (2) We might grant that the real stress shift in "noncorrespondences" was a poetic convention having nothing to do with non-poetic speech. (3) We might postulate that variant word forms with a stress on the second syllable normally existed in non-poetic speech as well. This particular period was characterized by a steady influx of new French loan words into the language. These were oral borrowings, therefore, in the beginning at least, they were probably stressed on the second syllable, as in French. Later, by analogy with native English words, the disyllabic loan words began to develop variant accentual forms stressed on the first syllable to go along with the prototypal French variants stressed on the second syllable. Polysyllabic borrowings like melodye seem to have two stresses due to the joint workings of the Germanic and Romance stress rules (Metreveli, 1966). By analogy with French loan words, some native-English words may have developed doublets stressed on the second syllable. Many investigators have noted and commented upon the phenomenon of

43 "noncorrespondence" at one time or another. The differences in their interpretations may almost always be linked to one of the following three hypotheses. (1) The views of a number of scholars may be conveniently grouped under the heading of "the syllabic hypothesis". These authors usually discern the features^ of a purely syllabic verse structure in Middle English poetry. Thus, V.M. Zirmunskij (1925, 200ff.) contended that the syllabic system of Romance poetry influenced the wide use of "noncorrespondences" in Middle English verse and the replacement of metrics by syllabics. Hammond (1965 (1927), 55) gave an even simpler explanation. Occleve, she wrote, was incapable of handling an alternating rhythm and was worried only about getting ten syllables in each line. Foxwell (1964 (1911) ) advanced a somewhat different idea. In her study of "noncorrespondences" (mostly in Wyatt's early 16th century iambic pentameters), Foxwell noticed that they often occur at the beginning of the line and at the beginning of the second half line. She proposed the existence of a legitimate accentual variant of the iambic rhythm during the 14th-16th centuries- a rhythmic inversion produced by words stressed on the first syllable. By allowing the possibility of frequent "rhythmic inversions" in Wyatt's verse, Foxwell is, in effect, legitimizing features of syllabic verse. Robinson (1971, 109-131) holds a similar view. He denies the existence of accentual variants of Anglo-Saxon words stressed on the second syllable, supposing that rhythmic inversions ("trochaic substitutions") occurred even in the last foot in Chaucer. (2) According to another theory, that of "accentual deformations", "noncorrespondences" have undergone a stress shift which distorts their normal accentual structure. Puttenham, one of the earliest English poetic theorists, warned poets to avoid word variants "deformed" by a stress shift: "Now there can not be in a maker a fowler fault then to falsifie his accent to serve his cadence..." (1589, 94). The stress "shift" caused by the pressure of the metrical scheme of the measure (Metrische Driickung; Akzentverschiebung; Taktumstellung) has also been written about by later investigators, notably the Germans (Bihl, 1916, 60; ten Brink, 1884, 159; Konig, 1888, 63). In their opinion, word forms with a stress shift were used only in verse and were not typical of non-poetic speech. (3) The authors of the third theory, which is conveniently termed the theory of "accentual variants", point to the instability of the accentual norms during the 12th-16th centuries. They claim that by analogy with French loan words, some polysyllabic native-English words (and, to a greater extent, hybrid words) acquired accentual variants with a final secondary or even a final second primary stress. Though the two stresses were usually separated by a syllable, they could be adjoining (in disyllabic words, for example). Thus even in Shakespeare's age, word stress was unstable (Brunner, 1963 (1950),

44 25; Dobson, 1957, v.2, 445; Kokeritz, 1953, 25, 333). (4) The fourth theory may be termed "dichotomic". Its authors, Halle and Keyser (1966, 191; 1971) contend that in Middle English the "Germanic" stress rule was wholly replaced by the "Romance" rule operative in modern English. In accordance with this rule, the syllable nearest the end of the word containing a long vowel began to receive the strong stress. These authors explain the existence of accentual-syllabic doublets in Middle English like cominge-coming by a change in the quantity of the second syllable. In their opinion, the stress always fell on the second syllable of the trisyllabic variants, and always on the first syllable of the disyllabic variants. The least plausible of these theories is the "accentual deformation" of words under the "pressure" of meter (2). It is unlikely that word forms which never existed in non-poetic speech would be used in verse. Obviously poetic speech has its conventions and special features; however, it is constituted of linguistic elements according to linguistic laws. Poetic speech usually conforms wholeheartedly to the norms of non-poetic speech, especially in periods prior to the existence of a normative literary language (Lehmann, 1956, 22,66,71). The use of archaic forms is sometimes observed in the verse of epigons, for example, in the poetic language of Chaucer's 15th century epigons. But even the archaic forms had actually been current at an earlier date. Halle and Keyser's "dichotomic" theory does not cover all the cases found in verse. In the first place, there are frequent disyllabic "noncorrespondences " in Chaucer and other 13th-l 5th century poets: I am, thou woost, yet of the companye A mayde, and love hunting and venerye, (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Knight's Tale", 1449-1450)

We have already observed that when a disyllabic "noncorrespondence" is used at the end of the line, the second syllable often rhymes with a strongly stressed monosyllable. This leads us to believe that the stress should be placed on the second syllable: Tak nu her this gold ring (God him is the dubbing); {KingHorn, 567-568).

In the second place, we find not only two, but three syllable "corresponding" forms in Middle English verse, implying that the primary stress is borne by the first syllable. For thilke graunting, in the hevene above, Bitwixe Venus, the goddesse of love, (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Knight's Tale", 2439-2440).

45 The first and third theories seem more plausible, though they could stand verification and refinement. The investigation described in (2) was devoted to clarifying the accentual structure of disyllabic and trisyllabic "noncorrespondances" in verse. 2. The method of

investigation.

We took all the two and three syllable words from our texts whose accentual structure in modern English does not correspond to their position in the verse. Of course not all these words are actually "noncorrespondences". This applies first of all to French loan words having two equally valid accentual forms in Middle English. This should be kept in mind when the term "noncorrespondence" is applied to them. The first stage of the analysis was a comparison of the total number of native-English and French loan words used in positions of "correspondence" and "noncorrespondence". The second stage of the analysis was an investigation of the distribution of native-English and French loan "noncorrespondences" in the line. Their distribution was compared with that of all the polysyllabic words in the line. The distribution of polysyllabic words is uneven, with higher concentrations in certain places. Since the variant form of French loan words stressed on the second syllable was the linguistic norm for the 12th-14th centuries, it was assumed that these accentual variants would be distributed within the line in the same way as other polysyllabic words. If native-English words had an equally valid variant form stressed on the second syllable, as did the French words, then presumably their distributional pattern would be the same. On the other hand, if native-English words were less frequently stressed on the second syllable than French loan words, or not at all, then the distributional patterns of "noncorrespondence" belonging to the two groups will differ. The prototypal forms of French loan words stressed on the second syllable were eventually replaced by forms stressed on the first syllable. The accentual structure of native-English and loan words gradually became uniform, with the primary stress fixed on the first syllable. We assumed that this fact would be reflected in the distribution of words within the line. Therefore the third stage of the analysis was a comparison of the distributional patterns in the verses of authors from different periods aimed at establishing when, and among which authors, native-English and loan words first began to be treated the same. The fourth stage of the analysis was the morphological classification of native-English "noncorrespondences". We also investigated the distribution of "noncorrespondences" in the line according to their morphological and sound structure. Special attention was paid to the morphological structure of "non-

46 correspondences" used at the end of the line. This is where one would expect to find forms with primary or secondary stress on the second syllable. For the purposes of our investigation, we assumed that there are three degrees of stress in modern English: strong, secondary, and nonstress (Torsuev, 1950, 1960, 1062). This applies to Old and Middle English as well (Metreveli, 1966). 3. The total number of "noncorrespondences" ictus in the verse

between word stress and

Table 5 shows the number of "noncorrespondences" found in each of the etymologically classified groups of words. A verse line normally contains no more than one "noncorresponding" word. Therefore a criterion for saturation of a verse text by "noncorrespondences" is not only the total number of such words, but also their ration to the number of the lines analysed. Most of the native English "noncorrespondences" in late 12th-14th century three-ictic (King Horn) and four-ictic verse are found in King Horn and Guy of Warwick, the least are found in Havelok the Dane. The most "noncorresponding" French loan words are found in Floris and Blancheflour and The Romaunt of the Rose. This is easily explained: the former is a recapitulation, the latter a translation — both from French originals. Both authors willingly use French loan words with the prototypal stress on the second syllable. Thus Chaucer uses only 20% of French loan nouns in "noncorresponding" positions in his own House of Fame, but as many as 33% of them in The Romaunt of the Rose, while the figure reaches 50% in Floris and Blancheflour. The Owl and the Nightingale and Havelok the Dane contain the fewest French "noncorrespondences". The author of Havelok the Dane apparently didn't know very much French. He uses native-English words where the authors of other romances prefer French: tun for cite; rike for country; ferade (ferd) for army; greten for cry; yemen for guard; theme for servaunt. The reasons for the differing use of native-English "noncorrespondences" are not so obvious. Do native-English "noncorrespondences" show up the weakness of the medieval poets' versification? The authors of early rhymed verse no doubt experienced technical difficulties in finding words to fit the new meter. However, the more intensive use of native-English "noncorrespondences" does not always imply grave technical imperfections. Thus, in its accentual structure The Owl and the Nightingale is significantly more regular and closer to being syllabo-tonic than Havelok the Dane, even though it contains more native-English "noncorrespondences" (Tarlinskaja, 1971a, 71-88). Do native-English "noncorrespondences" testify to the influence of French syllabics on English poetry? We have already said that the meter of Middle English poetry was basically syllabic-accentual. There are not enough

47 native-English "noncorrespondences" to decisively influence the rhythmical structures of these works. Thus only 7.0% of the native-English disyllabic nouns in Floris and Blanche/lour and 2.8% in Chaucer's House of Fame are "noncorresponding". A number of factors indicate that the influence of the French system of word stress on English word stress was greater than the influence of French syllabics on English verse. We are referring to the morphological and sound structure of native-English disyllabic and trisyllabic "noncorrespondences". Table 6 shows the morphological and sound structure of native-English "corresponding" and "noncorresponding" disyllabic nouns used by Chaucer in his translation of Le roman de la rose. Simple words are differentiated according to the sound of their second syllable, since this difference was not unimportant to medieval poets. The derivational and inflexional suffix -ing has been arbitrarily classed with the former since words ending in -ing, like those with derivational suffixes, occur especially often in positions of "noncorrespondence". Forms ending in -ing in The Romaunt of the Rose include newly created gerunds, deverbal nouns, and participles. The element -man apparently serves as a suffix in some words (womman, lemman) and a component of a compound word in others(shipman, Norman). Hybrids with a native-English root and the Romance suffix -esse were classified as nativeEnglish derived words. Table 6 shows that only 3% of the simple words were "noncorresponding". Simple words ending in -e were never used in "noncorresponding" positions. "Noncorrespondences" with inflexional suffixes are extremely rare, but words with derivational suffixes (especially -ing and -esse) were more often "noncorresponding" than "corresponding". The few compound words in the texts "correspond" about as often as they "fail to correspond". Similar regularities are observed in other Middle English three and four-ictic verses. These preliminary observations already lead us to postulate a possible stress (perhaps secondary and facultative) on the second syllable of words with derivational suffixes and compound words. The second syllable of simple words ending in an unstressed full vowel (lady, body) probably received some kind of accentual prominence also. This is why words ending in -e are not used in positions of "noncorrespondence" in The Romaunt of the Rose: the final -e had already been reduced, and often lost completely by this time. Apparently only a full vowel could be given syllabic prominence. The basic reason for the accentual prominence of full vowels lies in the typical lengthening of vowels in an open syllable in Middle English. The lengthening took place mainly in stressed syllables, but affected uhstressed syllables as well (Dobson, 1957, v.2, 830, Liebermann, 1965). Vowel length is known to be one of the components of English stress. The five-ictic verses of Occleve, then Henry son use the most "noncorresponding" French loan words. Of the French disyllabic nouns used by Oc-

48 cleve, 44.7% are "noncorresponding" (true, 11.1% of the "noncorrespondences" are prefixed and stressed on the second syllable in modern English as well: report, excess, renoun, assay, etc.). For Henryson's Testament of Cresseid the figure is 46.1% (13.1%of which are prefixed). French has apparently influenced both these authors. This is especially understandable in Henryson's case: Scotland held strong cultural and economic ties with France in the 15th century, and many Scots were in fact bilingual. The verse of Occleve and Henryson also contains the most native-English "noncorrespondences". Could it be that French syllabics rather than the French language per se exerted the greatest influence on these two poets' systems of versification? Indeed, their verse is slightly less regular than Chaucer or Lydgate's. However, the opposition of strong and weak positions is only a bit weaker than in other poets. The average non-ictic stress in Occleve is 12.6%, in Henryson 13.6%. Compare this to Chaucer- 8.1%, Shakespeare— 14.8% , Pope— 10.3% . The average ictic stress in Occleve is 80.4%, in Henryson 79.5% , compared to Chaucer— 84.8% , Shakespeare— 79.6% , Pope— 87.4% . Thus the verse of Occleve and Henryson is syllabo-tonic, not syllabic. This is also borne out by our investigation of the morphological structure of native-English "noncorrespondences". Table 7 shows the use of "corresponding" and "noncorresponding" disyllabic native-English nouns in Occleve's irregular verse. Here we observe the same regularity as in The Romaunt of the Rose: simple words (especially those ending in -e) and words with inflexional suffixes are very rarely used in "noncorresponding" positions, while words with derivational suffixes and compound disyllabic words have a specific accentual structure. Only 13.2%of again suggest that, compared to simple words, native-English derived and compound disyallbic words have a specific accentual structure. Only 13.2%of all the native-English disyllabic nouns in Occleve's verse are "noncorresponding" (versus 33.7% of the French disyllabic nouns— not including those with prefixes). All the poets use proper nouns in positions of "noncorrespondence" much more often than common nouns. Thus in the selection from Chaucer's House of Fame there were 20 "corresponding", 14 "noncorresponding" proper nouns (58.8 and 41.2% respectively). This phenomenon is even more clearly expressed in Henryson's Testament of Cresseid and Complaint of Cresseid: there are 28 "corresponding" and 44 "noncorresponding" disyllabic proper nouns (38.8 and 61.2% respectively). All the proper nouns are of Romance origin (Juno, Omeer, Venus, Phebus, Saturne, Titan, etc.). Trisyllabic words, especially those of French origin, usually occupy "a non-ictus + an ictus + a non-ictus", that is, they do not "correspond" to the meter. Occleve used 63.4% of the borrowed French nouns, including 45 of the 49 ending in -e and all four ending with the suffix -esse., in this way. Occleve uses only 13 native-English trisyllabic nouns, 10 of them "non-

49 corresponding": 3 ending in -inge (makinge, cominge): 5 ending in -nesse (gladnesse, witnesse)\ a fused compound word (husbonde) and a compound word (meermaides). The three "corresponding" words include two prefixed words (mysheering, unkinninge) and one noun with two suffixes (lesynges). The hybrides regnynge and rychesse are used in "noncorresponding" positions, endytying in "corresponding" positions. Thus trisyllabic words actually occupy "noncorresponding" positions relatively more often than disyllabic words. However, the absolute number of disyllabic "noncorrespondences " is much greater. The great mass of "noncorrespondences" became disyllabic after the loss of the final -e. The overwhelming majority of native-English and hybrid "noncorrespondences" end in something other than -e, despite the fact that this is the commonest ending for the simple words used in verse up to the middle of the 15th century. As it turns out, most of the "noncorrespondences" are nonsuffixed words ending in -cr or -y (-/