Chris McCully

English historical metrics

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction C. B. McCully and J. J. Anderson 2. Clashing stress in the meters of Old, Middle, and Renaissance English Thomas Cable 3. Purely metrical replacements for Kuhns laws Geoffrey Russom 4. Domain-end phenomena and metrical templates in Old English verse C. B. McCully 5. Can Old English rhythm be reconstructed Wolfgang Obst 6. On recent theories of metrics and rhythm in Beowulf Robert P. Stockwell 7. Non-primary stress in Middle English accentual-syllabic verse Donka Minkova 8. Systematic sound-symbolism in the long alliterative line in Beowulf and Sir Gawain Marie Borroff 9. Non-aa/ax patterns in Middle English alliterative long-line verse A. T. E. Matonis 10. The prosody of Middle English Pearl and the alliterative lyric tradition Richard H. Osberg 11. Alliterative patterning and the editing of Middle English poetry Gerrit H. V. Bunt 12. Reconsidering Chaucers prosody Gilbert Youmans 13. Chaucer Gower and the history of the hendecasyllable Martin J. Duffell 14. Libertine scribes and maidenly editors: meditations on textual criticism and metrics Hoyt N. Duggan References Index.

Some notes on the structure of acronyms

Abstract This paper examines the segmental and suprasegmental structure of acronyms from present-day English. It looks in brief at the history of such items; and it suggests that while acronyms do not undergo Consonant Extrametricality (Hayes (1982)) — because they are graphemically-based — they do undergo the English Stress Rule (ESR) in a very regular fashion. It also proposes that bisyllabic items (in particular) are instances of word-creation whose structure is to some extent conditioned by the notion of ‘canonical pressure’ expressible through a template drawn from dependency phonology (Anderson and Jones (1977)). Acronyms thus provide new evidence for the working and ordering of phonological rules in English.

Towards a theory of poetic change

This article1 provides an overview of the processes of structural change in poetic form(s), and aims to put those processes into a diachronic and conceptual framework. It is argued here, with reference to a wide range of examples drawn mainly (though not exclusively) from English, that poetic change can be seen to fall into four broad categories, adaptive change, assimilative change, typological change, and reactive change. The article concludes with an analysis of the reactive changes involved in the coming of non-metrical verse to the English poetic canon.

Exaptation and English Stress.

Abstract In this paper I examine whether the notion of ‘exaptation’ [Lass, R., 1990. Exaptation in language evolution. Journal of Linguistics 26, 79–102] has any application to the evolution of the English stress system. While the conclusion will in a strict sense be negative—there is nothing in the evolution of the system that could unambiguously be identified as exaptation in Lasss sense—it proves worthwhile to enquire whether linguistic survivals (of the kind seen in the stress-patterning of English nouns, for example) are ‘merely’ historically persistent, or come to serve new functions (such as the indication of morphological class). At the heart of this enquiry is the idea that the residues of linguistic change may be re-cyclable, and that languages may behave parsimoniously with respect to structures they have apparently discarded. Three features of the English stress system are examined: (1) the notion of ‘default’ stress in English; (2) the longevity and productiveness of the primary-secondary (/ \) pattern on nouns; and (3) the stress patterning of English verbs. The last case is particularly interesting since it is arguably here that right-hand word stress comes to serve as an indicator of morphological class, i.e. for speakers and learners, the right-hand stress pattern (permit, V, cf. the initial-stressed, corresponding noun) comes to ‘mean’ non-nominal, while the linguistic origins of the pattern lie in non-weight-sensitive stress assignment in Old English. That is, the original right-hand stress of such items is arguably recycled, in a different mode of stress assignment, as a form of morphological marking. In the present study, data are drawn from a survey of stress usage [Thomas, H., McCully, C.B., in progress. Theorizing a Mess of Stress. Department of English and American Studies. University of Manchester, UK], and from an electronic search of OED2, 1700 to the present-day, from which a 500-token list of verbs is compiled and analyzed in detail.

Writing under the influence: Milton and Wordsworth, mind and metre

This article suggests, in the spirit of Hayes (1983), that poetic influence can in part be expressible through a series of constraints as these are manifest in metrical filters, devices which essentially define which cadences are metrical for one poet, yet unmetrical for another. Synchronically, metrical filters help to account for the differences between the pentametric lines of Shakespeare, say, and those of Marlowe or John Donne. Diachronically, however, the employment of metrical templates yields challenging insights into how one poet, or group of poets, inherits, and seems to absorb, the metrical cadences of one or more strong precursors. In this instance, the focus of attention is on the literary relationship between Milton and Wordsworth, and the article shows, using a survey from Wordsworth’s mature work, that Wordsworth indeed seems to have inherited Milton’s characteristic intra-linear metrical structures, and employed them in his verse. Misreading, or ‘creative misprision’, may be, as Bloom (1973) suggests, the thematic hallmark of poetic influence, but here, metrically speaking, imitation is clearly the sincerest form of debt.

Adverbial function in English verse: the case of thus

In this article we argue that the use of the word thus in poetry sees a profound and significant expansion in the range and frequency of its uses in the 16th and 17th centuries. Using data compiled by electronic searches, we show that the use of the word reached its apogee in Miltons poetry - and then subsequently declined in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The article explores the links between the use of thus and the epic form in poetry, thereby providing some confirmatory evidence of the relationship between style and function in poetry. It also looks at diachronic, literary factors motivating poetic change.

Analysing Older English: Syntax in older English

Is historical linguistics different in principle from other linguistic research? This book addresses problems encountered in gathering and analysing data from early English, including the incomplete nature of the evidence and the dangers of misinterpretation or over-interpretation. Even so, gaps in the data can sometimes be filled. The volume brings together a team of leading English historical linguists who have encountered such issues first-hand, to discuss and suggest solutions to a range of problems in the phonology, syntax, dialectology and onomastics of older English. The topics extend widely over the history of English, chronologically and linguistically, and include Anglo-Saxon naming practices, the phonology of the alliterative line, computational measurement of dialect similarity, dialect levelling and enregisterment in late Modern English, stress-timing in English phonology and the syntax of Old and early Modern English. The book will be of particular interest to researchers and students in English historical linguistics.

Analysing Older English: Metrics and onomastics in older English

Is historical linguistics different in principle from other linguistic research? This book addresses problems encountered in gathering and analysing data from early English, including the incomplete nature of the evidence and the dangers of misinterpretation or over-interpretation. Even so, gaps in the data can sometimes be filled. The volume brings together a team of leading English historical linguists who have encountered such issues first-hand, to discuss and suggest solutions to a range of problems in the phonology, syntax, dialectology and onomastics of older English. The topics extend widely over the history of English, chronologically and linguistically, and include Anglo-Saxon naming practices, the phonology of the alliterative line, computational measurement of dialect similarity, dialect levelling and enregisterment in late Modern English, stress-timing in English phonology and the syntax of Old and early Modern English. The book will be of particular interest to researchers and students in English historical linguistics.

Analysing Older English: Writing practices in older English

Is historical linguistics different in principle from other linguistic research? This book addresses problems encountered in gathering and analysing data from early English, including the incomplete nature of the evidence and the dangers of misinterpretation or over-interpretation. Even so, gaps in the data can sometimes be filled. The volume brings together a team of leading English historical linguists who have encountered such issues first-hand, to discuss and suggest solutions to a range of problems in the phonology, syntax, dialectology and onomastics of older English. The topics extend widely over the history of English, chronologically and linguistically, and include Anglo-Saxon naming practices, the phonology of the alliterative line, computational measurement of dialect similarity, dialect levelling and enregisterment in late Modern English, stress-timing in English phonology and the syntax of Old and early Modern English. The book will be of particular interest to researchers and students in English historical linguistics.

Analysing Older English: Dialects in older English

Is historical linguistics different in principle from other linguistic research? This book addresses problems encountered in gathering and analysing data from early English, including the incomplete nature of the evidence and the dangers of misinterpretation or over-interpretation. Even so, gaps in the data can sometimes be filled. The volume brings together a team of leading English historical linguists who have encountered such issues first-hand, to discuss and suggest solutions to a range of problems in the phonology, syntax, dialectology and onomastics of older English. The topics extend widely over the history of English, chronologically and linguistically, and include Anglo-Saxon naming practices, the phonology of the alliterative line, computational measurement of dialect similarity, dialect levelling and enregisterment in late Modern English, stress-timing in English phonology and the syntax of Old and early Modern English. The book will be of particular interest to researchers and students in English historical linguistics.