Course Project - stylistics
Salemiiv
SEUENG380Week05ChapterPPT_Simpsonunit04-2.pptxUnit 4, Sections A, B : Rhythm and meter Interpreting patterns of sound
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Section A: Rhythm and meter
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Rhythm
The repetition of stress patterns across a line of verse/poetry
Meter
An organized, defined pattern of strong and weak syllables
Foot (the basic unit of analysis)
the span of stressed and unstressed syllables that forms a rhythmical pattern.
Key terms
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Different sorts (categories) of metrical feet can be determined according to the number of, and ordering of, their constituent stressed and unstressed syllables.
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Iambic
Two syllables
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
(de-dum) (less heavy-heavy)
Trochaic
Two syllables
stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
(dum-de) (heavy-less heavy)
Dactylic:
Three syllables
stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
(dum-de-de)
Describing Metrical Foot
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way
Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ (1751)
There are five iambs in the line, this metrical scheme is iambic pentameter. (six: hexameter – four: tetrameter)
Metre transcends the lexico-grammar
Metrical boundaries are no respecters of word boundaries.
rhythm provides an additional layer of meaning potential (axis of compensation/poetic line)
Enhance lexico-grammar structure
Or Fragment it
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Alliteration is a type of rhyme scheme which is based on similarities between consonants.
enhances the balancing halves of the line through the repetition of, first, the /pl/ in ‘ploughman’ and ‘plods’ and, later, the /w/ in ‘weary’ and ‘way’.
the first repetition /pl/ links both Subject and Predicator, while the /w/ consolidates the Complement element of the clause
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
The ploughman plods his weary way homeward
acoustic punctuation (sound marks) becomes redundant.
this rearrangement collapses entirely the original metrical scheme.
Rearrangement
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Meter combines the type of foot with the number of occurrences of that foot in a line
dactylic trimeter: three dactylic feet in a line
“O / what is that / sound that so / thrills the ear”
Starts with an off-beat (unstressed syllable at the beginning or end of a line that introduces or transitions into the true meter)
Trochaic tetrameter: four trochiac feet in a line
“By the / margin,/ willow veiled Slide the heavy barges trailed”
iambic pentameter: five iambic feet in a line
“The plough/man home/ward plods/ his wea/ry way”
free verse: uses the inflection of natural speech, without a strict metrical scheme
Metrical Schemes
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Metrical analysis is not an exact science.
So, readers have choices about verse inflection
The distinction between strong and weak syllables is relative to one another, not absolute.
Not all accentuation is equal; there are different degrees of accentuation (stress).
Not all meter is verse.
Meter is not specific to literature. E.g. advertisement.
Issues in Metrical Analysis
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Section B: Interpreting patterns of sound
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Onomatopoeia: a bridge between style and content that matches the sound of a word with a sound from the ‘real’ world.
Lexical onomatopoeia: Words with linguistic structure in which pronunciation has a symbolic reference to a sound
The book hit the desk with a thud.
A crack of thunder woke the sleeping baby.
She slurped her tea.
The bee is buzzing around the flower.
Nonlexical onomatopoeia: Unstructured/unmediated clusters of sounds referencing the real world
The sound of a car: vroom vroom, brrrrm brrrrm
Onomatopoeia
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Exploits lexical imitative potential
Acquires (develops) a mimetic function by random sequences of sound
Brings visuals, sense experiences to life
Evokes affective response from the reader by sound symbolism. (poetic phonaestasia) (see following two examples)
Stylistic Role of Lexical Onomatopoeia
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
[The valley . . . and the green chestnut . . .]
Are mocked dry like the parched bed of a brook.
Stephen Spender’s “Pylon”
Alliterative
Foregrounded specific sounds through repetition to ascribe a quality of aridity (dryness)
Voiced /b/,/d/ and voiceless stops /k/,/t/,/t∫/ combine to mock the dryness of the brook
absence of the ‘softer’ sounds like the fricatives /s/ and /z/
Consonant harmony
Examples
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! [. . .]
Gerard Manley Hopkins’s ‘The Windhover’
Vowel mimesis: (imitative representation of the real world)
Vowel disharmony, discordant (conflicting).
Oscillates (moves/swings) between front/back vowels, open/closed vowels, rounded/unrounded mouth, shorter/longer diphthongs
These oscillations mock the path of the flying falcon in the text.
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Impressionistic (subjective) labels such “dry consonant” and a “flying vowel”, has no place in the systematic study of speech sounds.
Phonaesthetic Fallacy: to make direct connections between the phonetic qualities of a text and ‘real’ world.
The fallacy lies in the assumption that language functions unproblematically as a direct embodiment (representation) of the real world.
The Phonaesthetic Fallacy
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Basic principles about interpreting sound symbolism:
a particular piece of language (usually poetry) is intended to be performed mimetically.
Be aware of the co-text (text immediately surrounding the particular feature of style under consideration). Think about how the levels of language can parallel each other. E.g. in Hopkins, the disharmony on the phonetic level (vowels) is emphasized by the mixture by the grammatical forms (nouns, verbs and adverbs) that carry those sounds
Notice heightened meaning (how phonetic and semantic properties work together to reinforce/intensify interpretations). E.g. “parched” is picked over “waterless” because the latter has softer sounds /w/, /l/, /s/.
Be cautious about interpreting inherent relationships between phonetic meanings and felt experiences. Avoid subjective interpretation.
Basic Principles
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
Simpson, P. (2004). Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415644969 (print edition).
References
‹#›
ENG 380: Stylistics
