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RHYTHMIC COGNITION AND LINGUISTIC RHYTHM

RHYTHMIC COGNITION AND LINGUISTIC RHYTHM Richard D. Cureton The importance of rhythm in language has been widely recognized. Literary critics have always acknowledged the controlling influence of rhythm in poetry, and recently linguists have been demonstrating the important functions of rhythm throughout grammar and discourse: in segmental phonology, linguistic prosody, functional syntax, and oral discourse (to name a few).1 Despite long and continuous attention to these matters, our understanding of linguistic rhythm remains astonishingly primitive and partial, however. As a procession of students of these matters have recently lamented (Harvey Gross, David Crystal, Donald Wesling, Terry Brogan, Henri Meschonnic, and others), our many methods for representing and explaining rhythmic language are more pretheoretical procedures for solving various limited, descriptive tasks than substantial theories of the structure and use of rhythmic language.2 All of our theories of rhythm in language tolerate massive inconsistencies in basic terms and procedures and consequently are too weak to define and motivate even the most basic elements of linguistic rhythm (e.g., the metrical line or stanza). Individually, these theories achieve substantial results, but even taken together, they fall far short of accounting for our füll rhythmic experience of even the simplest of texts (e.g., a proverb or a sonnet). http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Literary Semantics de Gruyter

RHYTHMIC COGNITION AND LINGUISTIC RHYTHM

Journal of Literary Semantics , Volume 23 (3) – Jan 1, 1994

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References (10)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by the
ISSN
0341-7638
eISSN
1613-3838
DOI
10.1515/jlse.1994.23.3.220
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Richard D. Cureton The importance of rhythm in language has been widely recognized. Literary critics have always acknowledged the controlling influence of rhythm in poetry, and recently linguists have been demonstrating the important functions of rhythm throughout grammar and discourse: in segmental phonology, linguistic prosody, functional syntax, and oral discourse (to name a few).1 Despite long and continuous attention to these matters, our understanding of linguistic rhythm remains astonishingly primitive and partial, however. As a procession of students of these matters have recently lamented (Harvey Gross, David Crystal, Donald Wesling, Terry Brogan, Henri Meschonnic, and others), our many methods for representing and explaining rhythmic language are more pretheoretical procedures for solving various limited, descriptive tasks than substantial theories of the structure and use of rhythmic language.2 All of our theories of rhythm in language tolerate massive inconsistencies in basic terms and procedures and consequently are too weak to define and motivate even the most basic elements of linguistic rhythm (e.g., the metrical line or stanza). Individually, these theories achieve substantial results, but even taken together, they fall far short of accounting for our füll rhythmic experience of even the simplest of texts (e.g., a proverb or a sonnet).

Journal

Journal of Literary Semanticsde Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 1994

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