Verse Meters Research Articles

Denominal conversion verbs and the ‘verb + it’ construction in English

In English, a number of verbs enter a noteworthy, though understudied, combination with a morpheme it, which evidently lacks a referential function. Among these verbs, there are quite a few which were formed from nouns by means of conversion (e.g. to bus it, to au pair it, to verse it, to newspaper it). While some authors assume that the expletive morpheme it in direct-object position functions to enhance a verb’s transitivity, the most recent diachronic study has shown that its influence on transitivity is rather marginal. If transitivization is not the driving force behind the use of the ‘verb + it’ construction, the question as to other functions arises. The aim of this article is to present a new proposal according to which the expletive element is primarily (though not exclusively) an aspectual marker, which, in contrast to the bare verb, expresses telicity (e.g. to bus vs. to bus it). In this function, this element provides the verb it complements with a temporal endpoint. Proceeding from a distinction between (a)telicity and (un)boundedness drawn in the pertinent literature, it will be shown that this endpoint may or may not actually be reached. The aspectual function of the expletive element it is assumed here to co-exist with other functions identified in the few previous works and in the present study. These functions, which are independent of telicity, comprise the expression of necessity, the intensification of activities, the preservation of the verse metre especially in literary texts, and the support of the verbal status of innovative or weakly established denominal conversion verbs.

UKRAINIAN TRANSLATIONS OF ENGLISH POETRY IN TERMS OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

The relevance of the problem is explained by the fact the Ukrainian language is arising more and more interest in the world nowadays and it’s quite urgent to analyse its possibilities to translate the well-known English poetry. For those who are interested in poetry in their native language and are studying Ukrainian as a foreign one it is both useful and pleasant to make the analysis of the two languages abilities to create an aspect of intercultural communication. Our investigation is based on Emily Dickinson’s poetic works and their Ukrainian translations made by N. Tuchynska, O. Zuyevsky, M. Gablevych, and O. Hrytsenko. The purpose of the research is to identify the possibilities of the Ukrainian language as a target language in poetic translation and to characterize translation finds and losses. Emily Dickinson’s poetry is characterized by the combination of different verse meters in one poem, the special use of punctuation marks, in particular the frequent use of dashes. E. Dickinson’s poems are also distinguished by such stylistic means and techniques as assonance, alliteration, graphon (in the form of capitalization of individual nouns), paradoxes, epithets, metaphors, etc. Different translators resort to different ways of adequate translation. O. Zuyevskyi prefers contextual substitution, grammatical restructuring of sentences, modulation, concretization and domestication, uses archaic Ukrainian vocabulary in order to compensate for the loss of some original lexical units of the official style of speech. O. Hrytsenko tries to reproduce the original syntactic structure, but, resorting to such translational transformations as grammatical substitution, deletion, contextual substitution, addition, and concretization, he loses key stylistic techniques – the author’s paradox, antonomasia, epithets, irony and satire. Anyway in certain cases, due to the combination of various verse meters, the lack of a clear rhythm and the unjustified use of certain vocabulary, the architecture and compositional structure of the verse text are not preserved. We see the prospects of the investigation in creating practical tasks for the advanced level learners of the Ukrainian language to compare the original and the translated text under consideration. Key words: the Ukrainian language, the English language, poetry, translation.

«Татпарья-вритти» Падмапрабхи Маладхаридевы и джайнская этика

This publication presents the first translation into European language of the only Sanskrit commentary Tātparya-vrŠ tti of the almost unknown Digambara exegete Padmaprabha Maladhārideva (12th century) on the first chapter-adhikāra of the treatise Niyama-sāra (“Essence of Restraint”) by Kundakunda (3rd–4th centuries), who is one of the most authoritative Jain authors. The first chapter of the commentary introduces the problems of the text and gives a general idea of the “Three Jewels” of Jainism: right vision, right knowledge and right behavior, the latter of which is the main theme of the text. The translation is preceded by an Introduction to the ethical doctrine of Jainism, which is considered by the author of the article as one of the variants of the virtue ethics. Jain ontology, being a descriptive part of the Jain Doctrine, is complemented by a prescriptive one, which includes an extensive system of vows (both “great” and “small”, basic and additional) and restrictions for all members of the community, which is built on the basis of the main prohibition of violence against all kinds of living beings. The observance of vows in Jain ethics is logically integrated into the Path of Liberation of the soul-ātman from the wheel of rebirth and is marked by various steps of the ladder of spiritual self-improvement. In the first chapter of the commentary Padmaprabha Maladhārideva proficiently shows the connection between ontology and ethics, skillfully weaving verses of his own composition into his exegesis and demonstrating deep knowledge not only of the Jain philosophical tradition, but also fluency in various verse meters according to the hermeneutical tasks facing him.

AZƏRBAYCAN VƏ İNGİLİS DİLLƏRİNDƏ FONOLOJİ PARALELİZMLƏRİN YARANMASINDA ÖLÇÜNÜN ROLU

The article deals with the role of metre in forming linguopoetic features of parallelism in the Azerbaijan and English languages. Phonological parallelism plays a crucial role in forming of linguopoetic features of parallelism. Being the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse metre is one of the main ways of forming phonological parallelism in both languages. In the research of metre literary texts have been considered by linguistic scholars of both languages and in these texts the most common types of metres and their frequency of use have widely been investigated. In both languages approaches to the issue of metre are quite various and thereby we observe the possibilities of different linguopoetic features in poetic samples of stated languages. In the literary texts of both languages we witness that metre is one of the main requirements of determining prosodic- phonological structure of poems. Key words: phonological parallelism, metre, linguopoetic properties, poetry, language

“Upadesamrita” as a medieval source on the history of the philosophy of Bengal Vishnuism

The article considers one of the classical Indian medieval texts written by Vaishnava thinker Rupa Goswami (1493– 1564), a follower of the Bengal branch of Vishnuism, an influential Indian religious and philosophical movement. The text "Upadeshamrita" (“Nectar of Instruction”) is one of the basic textbooks for the systematic study of Gaudiya Vishnuism since it not only sets out a concise form of philosophy but also is a practical guide to its application. The study analyzes its structure and content of the text, estimates its role and significance for Bengal Vishnuism. The authors consistently substantiate the relevance of this research, citing references to the works of domestic and foreign scientists and links to comments on this source in various languages. The article provides the history of the treatise and outlines its structure. The article also analyzes the verse meters of the Upadeshamrita. There are multiple approaches within the theoretical basis of Vishnuism to considering the structure of the text because it can derive the various meaning of the content. This analysis of the connections between the verses of the "Upadeshamrita" defined the functionality of the manuscript and presented a few interpretations of the structure. The authors demonstrate how transforms the essence of the message embedded in the text of the work, depending on the spiritual "portrait" of the reader. Therefore, according to the results of the research, the authors concluded that "Upadeshamrita" is a particularly important contribution to Vishnuism learning so it considers as a historical and philosophical source.

Формально-языковая модель стиха и регулятивов его метра для автоматизированной метрической идентификации

Рассматривается ф ормально-языковая модель слогового представления стихового текста поэтического произведения и регулятивов его метра, определенных параметрами некоторых сегментов строки. Выделены метро-ритмические сегменты, конституирующие как метр, так и ритм стиха, для чего привлечено определение метра русского стиха, опору которому составили такие измеримые сегменты стиха, как фонетичское слово и метрический период с междуиктовым интервалом. Определены значения регулятивов для репертуара метров русского стиха, в том числе при таких явлениях, как появление сверхсхемного и пропуск схемного ударения. Описаны процедуры автоматической идентификации метра стихового текста.

Sravnitel´noe stikhovedenie: metrika i ritmika by E. V. Kazartsev (review)

Sravnitel´noe stikhovedenie: metrika i ritmika by E. V. Kazartsev (review)

One mechanism of Russian poetic language

Traditionally, the phenomenon of the semantic aura of the verse metre was regarded exclusively as historically determined; the question of a potential synaesthesia (the imitative potential possessed by the rhythmic structure of a poetic text) was essentially disregarded. This paper aims to approach the problem of “metre and meaning” from the perspective of possible actualisation of certain language forms in the metrical structures of binary and ternary metres; in other words, to analyse how the metrical nature of verse determines its basic semantic model. We have come to the conclusion that the fundamental difference between Russian binary and ternary metres lies in the level of rhythmical prominence of metrically dual words, the majority of which are pronouns. The very structure of binary metres suggests a constant possibility for pronouns to be in proximity to an unstressed syllable and to receive more or less heavy stress. In ternary metres pronouns find themselves inside the circle of metrical stresses and, being inevitably adjacent to either the preceding or the following one, lose their accent and are swallowed during pronunciation. The latter, in turn, results in weakening of deictic and anaphoric language functions and undermines the established logic of textual development. That is where different, i. e., poetic, mechanisms of creating meaning come to the fore. Ternary metres put rhythmic stress on notional words, creating — in accordance with the law of poetic analogy and via omission of intermediary elements — linguistically unpredictable associations between them; binary metres emphasise semi-notional and functional words, stressing the logical and grammatical order of text development.

The derivatives of hexameter in Estonian poetry and their link with the traditional hexameter

The sources of the theory of the Estonian hexameter can be traced back to 17th century Germany, where the long syllables of ancient hexameter were replaced with stressed ones, and short syllables with unstressed ones. Although such understanding is clearly inadequate, to a great extent it still holds ground in contemporary approaches. Hexameter, like any other verse metre, can be treated from two angles. First, as an abstract scheme which is realized in different texts, while the degree of realization can vary. Second, hexameter can be viewed as a prototype and actual texts create a certain space further from or closer to the prototype. In both cases questions arise, first, about the limits of hexameter, and second, whether a given text has features of a random hexameter or reflects the author's conscious intent.

Verse as a semiotic system

Poetry is an important challenge for semiotics, and a special area of study for the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school, since the first volume of Sign Systems Studies was Juri Lotman’s monograph Lectures on Structural Poetics (1964). From then on the concept of poetry as one of the secondary modelling systems has evolved, since in relation to poetry, the primary modelling system is natural language. In this paper, the concept of semiotic system has been re-examined and the treatment of primary and secondary semiotic systems has been significantly revised. A semiotic system can be characterized not only by its internal structure and other systems to which it is related, but also by the field upon what it is realized. The latter aspect has gained almost no attention in any treatment of semiotics; the execution of a sign is understood in the spirit of Saussure and Hjelmslev as a material realization of an abstract element (for instance, a chess piece knight can be realized with wood or plastic, but it can also remain purely virtual). At first, distinction is made between language and sign system. Every sign system consists of language and field. There are three different kinds of fields: 1) just a background – footprints on sand are a sign on the background of sand; 2) a material structured field (a football ground or a chess board in the game called Chapayev) and 3) an abstract structured field, which in its turn consists of other fields (for instance, the chess board which consists of 64 fields). Differently from a football ground, a chess board can be a purely virtual one on which virtual pieces are moved (for instance, in case of blindfold or correspondence chess). The field in its turn can be language and one language can use another language as its field. In this case we speak of primary and secondary sign systems. For instance, the prosodic system of language is a field for a verse metre, while the semantic system of language is a field for a narrative.

On the functions of metrical dualism in M. Tsvetayeva's verse on the basis on the poem "How perfectly deceitful life is …." (1922)

The article discusses the notion of metrical dualism as a phenomenon of the reader's perception of verse. The author analyzes the prosody and metrics of Marina Tsvetayeva's poems "Неподражаемо лжет жизнь" ("How perfectly deceitful life is ….", 1922). However, the aim of this study is not to interpret the metre of Tsvetayeva's verse, but rather to obtain a model of reading verse and thus show how the reader's perception of metre changes. Thus, the author consciously has not considered the metric or the logaoedic interpretations of this poem, while approaching the text from the point of view of the reader's perception which is always aimed at the revealing of symmetric structures. This approach makes it possible to take into account such aspects as the variety of metric interpretations, the dynamic development of verse metre, the internal and external metrical boundaries in text, etc. The analysis of Tsvetayeva's verse reveals the interaction of two rhythmic patterns in the text, which is connected to the general meaning of the poem that tells the reader about the deceitfulness of life.

The metrical organization of Classical Sanskrit verse

In generative metrics, a meter is taken to be an abstract periodic template with a set of constraints mapping linguistic material onto it. Such templates, constrained by periodicity and line length, are usually limited in number. The repertoire of Classical Sanskrit verse meters is characterized by three features which contradict each of the above properties – (a) templates constituted by arbitrary syllable sequences without any overtly discernible periodic repetition: APERIODICITY, (b) absolute faithfulness of linguistic material to a given metrical template: INVARIANCE, and (c) a vast number of templates, ranging between 600–700: RICH REPERTOIRE. In this paper, I claim that in spite of apparent incompatibility, Sanskrit meters are based on the same principles of temporal organization as other versification traditions, and can be accounted for without significant alterations to existing assumptions about metrical structure. I demonstrate that a majority of aperiodic meters are, in fact, surface instantiations of a small set of underlying quantity-based periodic templates and that aperiodicity emerges from the complex mappings of linguistic material to these templates. Further, I argue that the appearance of a rich repertoire is an effect of nomenclatural choices and poetic convention and not variation at the level of underlying structure.

ACCENTUAL-SYLLABIC HEXAMETER IN ESTONIAN POETRY AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY – THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

1. Introduction In most European poetical traditions, dactylic hexameter is almost always the first ancient metre to become employed systematically. same happened in Estonian poetry: here too the verse technique of hexameter was the first to gain special attention. developers of the Estonian hexameter proceeded mostly from the German and Russian tradition. Although the German theorists had discussed the possibilities of the quantitative hexameter in modern languages already since the beginning of the 19th century (for details, see, e.g. Lotman 1976, 1987), the Estonian hexametrists still proceeded from the principle offered by Johann Christoph Gottsched in the 18th century. According to this principle, the strong positions were to be filled with stressed syllables and weak positions with unstressed ones: such rules resulted in the accentual-syllabic hexameter. aim of the present paper is to give a synopsis of the Estonian accentual-syllabic hexameter from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. material comprises the translation of the first song of The Odyssey by Jaan Bergmann (i.e. 444 verses), Friedrich Kuhlbars' stichic hexameters (72 verses) and elegiac distichs (208 verses), Villem Ridala's elegiac distichs (456 verses) and several other attempts of dactylic hexameters in the earlier Estonian poetry. main attention will be paid to three different aspects of versification, that is, to the prosodical, metrical and rhythmical structures. 2. Jaan Bergmann's hexameter 2.1. Prosody Jaan Bergmann was the first Estonian author who in order to diversify Estonian poetry (1) systematically wrote stichic hexameters and thus developed the principles of accommodating hexameter into the Estonian language. Jaan Bergmann uses in his hexameter several techniques which are characteristic of the Estonian poetry in the 19th century. most conspicuous are the following. 1) monophthongization of diphthongs. (2) In the earlier Estonian poetry, regardless of verse metre, diphthongs and long vowels can turn into monophthongs whenever required by versification rules. For example, in the following iambic tetrameter by Karl Eduard Soot (from the poem They said ...--Nad utlesid ...) we encounter the word 'kaod' which would normally be considered a monosyllabic word containing a diphthong, but in this particular case is monophthongized and thus fills two metrical positions: x X x X x X x X x Nad utlesid, sa kaod ara. There are numerous examples of such device in Jaan Bergmann's hexameters as well. For example, in the following verse: X x x X x x X X x x X x X xx X x Et tema nimi saaks tutvaks ja ausaks kuulsate reas (1, 95), the last foot is filled with the word 'reas', which is normally a monosyllabic word. In this case the diphthong 'ea' is monophthongized and becomes a disyllabic word: re-as. other diphthongs like this are, e.g. ea, oa, eo, ao in the following verses: X x x X x x X x X X x X x x Xx Ning et ta kusida voiks, kas isast ei midagi teaks (1, 135), X x x X x x X x x X x x X x x X x Koledas koopas ja teinud tast omale viimase roa (2, 20), X x x X x x X x X x x X x x X x Kuna teid endid on hulk, et jataksid joledad teod (2, 241), X x x X x x X x X x x X x x X x Koiki mu kaaslasi hirm siis kohutas kahvatuks naost (12, 243). At the same time, diphthongs can be retained as such, cf 1, 216: X x x X(x) x X x x X x x X x x X x Seda ei tea. Sest ukski ju ise ei tea, kust ta parit where the word 'tea' occurs in the verse twice. In the first case its prosody can be interpreted in two possible ways: it either fills the strong position of the second foot as a diphthong or is monophthongized and fills the strong position and the first element of the weak position in a dactylic foot. …

Kurtág's Articulation of Kafka's Rhythms (<i>Kafka-Fragmente</i>, op. 24)

György Kurtág selected fragments from Franz Kafka's Tagebücher, Octavhefte, Kafka's letters and other writings for his Kafka-Fragmente, op. 24. The 40 fragments in György Kurtág's, op. 24 use 38 texts. 12 are taken from the Tagebücher, 12 from the Octavhefte, 11 from other fragments and aphorisms, and 1 each from Kafka's letters to Oskar Pollock, Felice Bauer, and Milena Jesenská. The texts contain 1103 syllables, unequally distributed. The fragments selected by Kurtág cover a broad range of rhythmic situations, some of wich echo one another across the work. One of the major variables is the extent to which, in a given fragment, the sequence of accents approaches the predictability of conventional verse meters. A second major variable is the extent to which the singer's rhythmic figures are announced, supported, or echoed by the violin. A third is the presence, or absence of brief melismas or extended vocalises. A forth is the correlation, or lack of correlation between shifts in text rhythm and shifts from one group of tones to another.

Русский стих: метрика, системы стихосложения, просодия (генеративный подход) [Russian verse: Its metrics, versification systems, and prosody (Generative synopsis)

Russian verse: Its metrics, versification systems, and prosody (Generative synopsis). In the article the general verse metre theory and its application to Russian verse is adressed, allowing us, thereby, to observe not the single details, but only the most general characteristics of verse. The treatment can be summarised in the five following points: 1) the basis for the phenomenon of verse is its metrical code: the special feature of verse text is the presence of its metre (this feature is common to every verse type, to the most regular verse, as well as to vers libre); 2) the nature of verse metre is extralinguistic, there is no metre within a language, the latter can only induce certain limitations in choosing a metre; 3) metre is an abstract chain of translational symmetry, the elementary period of which is called verse foot (i.e. firstly, verse feet are contained in every versification system, incl. syllabic verse and free verse, and, secondly, verse feet can not be defined in terms of natural language, e.g., as the combination of short and long or accented and unaccented syllables).4) in verse text, metre appears through the medium of natural language: verse metre is coded in terms of natural language; the nature of its codification is detennined by the versification system. Hence, every verse metre can be realised in different versification systems, e.g. iambus can occur in syllabic-accentual, syllabic-quantitative, and some other versification systems;5) verse prosody is a consequence of the influence of verse metre on the prosodies of language; the range of transformation of a language system by verse metre extends from the unification of the strength of verse accents in accentual verse to such artificial formations as the origination of long syllables in languages which lack phonological quantity.

Rhythm and Syntax in Verse: English Iambic Tetrameter and Dolnik Tetrameter (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries)

This paper addresses two English verse meters: the iambic tetrameter and a tetrameter form of the strict stress-meter (the dolnik). It studies how the accentual, syllabic, and word-boundary types of lines (rhythm) correlate with their part-ofspeech and syntactic composition (syntax). Rhythm in verse is determined by the positions and strength of stresses, the number of unstressed syllables between adjacent stressed ictuses, and the types and locations of word boundaries. One way in which verse syntax integrates into verse rhythm is through the varying strength of syntactic links between adjacent notional words. The typical tendencies are as follows: (1) The strongest syntactic link between adjacent notional words tends to be at the end of the line, and the weakest in midline. This contributes to the tendency toward the dipodic accentual composition of the line, emphasized also by its wordboundary segmentation. (2) The final unstressed interval between adjacent stressed ictuses in the dolnik tends to be monosyllabic. (3) The strong syntactic link between the two final notional words tends to weaken in disyllabic intervals (in the dolnik) and particularly in trisyllabic intervals (in the iamb, when the penultimate ictus is unstressed). For example: Of mountain heath, and moory / thyme (a monosyllabic interval and a strong syntactic link)--And it opened its fan-like leaves // to the light (a disyllabic interval and a weaker link)-And ask your soul ///if it can say (a trisyllabic interval and the weakest link). I am grateful to Professor Mikhail L. Gasparov and Professor Frederick J. Newmeyer, who read this essay in manuscript form and made valuable comments and suggestions. Poetics Today 18:1 (Spring 1997). Copyright ? 1997 by The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.101 on Sat, 08 Oct 2016 05:55:37 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 60 Poetics Today 18:1