Natural Rhythmic Patterns in English Verse

23 Pages·2003·2.19 MB·English

JOURNAL OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE 27, 718-740 (1988)
Natural Rhythmic Patterns in English Verse: Evidence from
Child Counting-Out Rhymes
MICHAEL H. KELLY
University of Pennsylvania
AND
DAVID C. RUBIN
Duke University
Counting-out rhymes are part of an oral tradition whose primary participants are children.
These facts are used to justify the claim that the rhythmic structure of counting-out rhymes
can be attributed to natural preferences more readily than could the structure of formal verse
considered alone. The first study uncovered a number of similarities between formal and
counting-out verse. The rhythm of counting-out rhymes is constrained by the principle of
rhythmic alternation, the nuclear stress and compound rules, and foot boundaries. In addi-
tion, both trochaic and iambic meters seem to exist as natural categories in counting-out
rhymes. Finally, children appear to associate different grammatical categories with different
degrees of stress, in a manner very similar to patterns found in adult verse. The second study
explored the variants of one common counting-out rhyme and reports changes that preserve
or improve the poetics of the rhyme. The discussion offers one definition of what a
“natural” rhythmic pattern in verse might mean: A pattern that has parallels in the rhythmic
structure of ordinary speech. This definition makes the study of verse attractive to psycho-
linguists for three reasons. First, factors that influence speech rhythm can be examined for
their relevance to poetic rhythm, a possibility that renders tractable the psycholinguistic
study of one form of language creativity. Second, hypotheses about the rhythmic structure
of speech can be formulated from knowledge of poetic rhythm. Finally, studying the struc-
ture of child verse could foster understanding of the acquisition of prosodic rules, an
area that has been relatively neglected in developmental psycholinguistics. Q 1988 Academic
Press, Inc,
One of the most oft-disputed questions in man cognitive and perceptual systems
art criticism is the extent to which the struc- (Arnheim, 1974; Gombrich, 1961). In the
ture of artwork reflects arbitrary, culturally area of poetic metrics, this question specif-
defined conventions or patterns naturally ically focuses on the rules governing the
preferred as a normal consequence of hu- rhythmic structure of verse. Recent linguis-
tic investigations have shown the rhythmic
structure of verse penned by English poets
We thank Donitt Billman, Kay Bock, Patricia Car- such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Pope to
penter, Lila Gleitman, and two anonymous reviewers
be governed by a number of subtle rules
for helpful comments on previous drafts of this manu-
that had been undetected by prosodists un-
script. This paper was supported by an NIH Biomed-
ical Research Support Grant and NIH Grant 1 R29 til quite recently (Kiparsky 1975, 1977).
HD233385-01 to Michael Kelly, and by NSF Grant The very subtlety of these rules suggests
BNS-8410124 to David Rubin. Correspondence con- that English poets could not have been con-
cerning this article may be addressed to Michael sciously following them, and so they may
Kelly, Department of Psychology, University of Penn-
reflect natural rhythmic preferences in En-
sylvania, 3815 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-
61%. glish rather than arbitrary conventions as-
718
0749-5%X/88 $3.00
Copyright 0 1988 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
RHYTHM OF COUNTING-OUT RHYMES 719
sociated with particular poetic traditions. being “it.” The chant is then recited again
Further evidence for this claim derives and again until all but one of the children
from the fact that many of these rules apply are “out.” In one of childhood’s earliest
to normal conversational speech. Hence, performative utterances, the remaining
certain rhythmic patterns of verse must be child is dubbed “it,” and the game begins.
naturally preferred since they appear in Because these chants involve a type of
“nature,” where the latter is defined as counting, often quite explicitly as in the
typical spoken interchange. Nonetheless, very popular
such conclusions must be questioned be-
cause of the fact that human beings follow (1) One potato, two potato, three potato,
unconsciously many rules that have their four,
foundations in cultural tradition. Formal Five potato, six potato, seven potato,
English poets clearly wrote within certain more,’
poetic traditions, and many of the rhythmic
rules associated with these traditions may they are typically called “counting-out
have been learned and followed uncon- rhymes. ”
sciously by these poets. In addition, al- Counting-out rhymes have several major
though some of the conditions governing advantages for the study of poetic rhythm.
verse rhythm operate also in normal First, counting-out rhymes are a true oral
speech, others do not or, at least, have not tradition with little contamination from the
as yet been shown to be relevant. Such pat- memory aid of writing. Because of this fact,
terns therefore may derive from arbitrary any rhyme that exists for a period of time,
convention. Finally, any natural preference and some have existed for the century that
in conflict with a poetic tradition could be folklorists have been recording the genre,
effectively masked because of the reliance must be structured so that they can be
on writing rather than memory as a means learned, remembered, and retold with rela-
of preserving one’s verse. tive ease. Rhythmic patterns that were not
Evaluating the natural versus arbitrary easy to learn (or were not aesthetically
nature of rhythmic rules in English poetry pleasing) would have many opportunities to
could be performed more securely by ana- be lost or changed into better ones. Mem-
lyzing verse forms that (1) do not rely on ory distortions that create or maintain good
external memory aids to .preserve naturally form are common in the recreation of sto-
“bad” patterns and (2) are used by people ries (Bartlett, 1932), perceptual figures
not yet indoctrinated in English poetic tra- (Kiihler, 1947), and have even been ob-
ditions. In this paper, we will compare the served in counting-out rhymes (Rubin,
rhythmic structure of formal English verse 1986). For instance, transformations of
with that of a verse form that possesses counting-out rhymes tend to preserve po-
these and other favorable characteristics. etic structure. Thus variants of “eenie,
This verse form consists of the jingles that meenie, miney, mo” preserve the rhythmic
children use to determine who is “it” in pattern and alliteration of the line. Histori-
games such as hide-and-seek, kick-the-can, cal variants include “eena, deena, dina,
and poison. These verses exist in a wide do” but not “eenie, meenie, diney, mo.” In
variety of cultures and generally take the addition, as illustrated by (2), a good deal of
form of nonsensical incantations recited by counting-out verse lacks any coherent se-
a child leader (Bolton, 1988). With each mantic structure that could aid their recall.
main stress in the verse, the speaker points Thus, unlike formal English verse or se-
to a different child in the group. The child
upon whom the last stress of the chant falls
’ All counting-out rhymes quoted in the paper are
is magically relieved of the possibility of
drawn from Abrahams and Rankin (1980).
720
KELLY AND RUBIN
mantically rich oral poetry such. as that .25 vs .26, and .87 vs .82, respectively (all
sung in Yugoslavia (Lord, 1960), memory t(46) < 1.30, nonsignificant). There was a
for counting-out rhymes depends almost difference in the proportion of 4-beat lines
entirely on poetics, such as rhyme, alliter- between the common and rare rhymes, .83
ation, and rhythm: vs 60 (t(46) = 2.05, p < .05), though the
4-beat rhyme was, by far, the most com-
(2) Eena, meeny, dippery Dick,
mon pattern in both samples. More subtly,
Deelia, dollia, Dominick,
the placement of the beats was better poet-
Hypa, potcha, dominotcha,
ically in the common rhymes. Thus, more
Tee, taw, tick.
of the words involved in repetition, rhyme,
Second, unlike most other genres, count- alliteration, or assonance fell on strong
ing-out rhymes are defined by function, not beats in the common rhymes than in the
form. Thus, our corpus is based on Abra- rare rhymes (.90 vs .79, respectively, t(46)
hams and Rankin’s Counting-Out Rhymes: = 2.53). Thus, the common and rare
A Dictionary (1980), which consists of say- rhymes appear to be quite similar, with the
ings that children use to decide who is “it.” common rhymes showing a better fit of the
Folklorists did not exclude poetic patterns repetition of sound pattern to the rhythmic
because they lacked a particular predefined structure, which may explain their greater
structure, such as a certain rhyme scheme popularity.
or pattern of alliteration. The only criterion Finally, and most importantly, the partic-
for inclusion was a functional one, and ipants in the counting-out tradition are al-
therefore the rhythmic patterns reported most exclusively children. The rhymes are
here are not an artifact of a structurally de- therefore passed on from child to child
fined genre. rather than adult to child (Opie & Opie,
Third, although defined by function, 1959). Since the children are not educated
counting-out rhymes are a genre when ex- as yet in the traditions of formal English
amined in terms of form. To demonstrate poetry, the rhythmic structure of their
this claim, the 24 most cited counting-out verse stands a better chance of reflecting
rhymes in the Abrahams and Rankin dictio- inherently natural rhythmic patterns. One
nary were compared with a randomly se- could argue that the counting-out rhymes
lected sample of 24 rhymes that were cited originated with adults, and were only later
only once. The most popular rhymes repre- confiscated by children. Thus, the poetics
sent most of the actual usage in English in such verse may reflect the preferences of
over the last century. The rare rhymes offer more poetically sophisticated parents
a good chance to see if rhymes noticed only rather than those of their children. Al-
once by folklorists, and perhaps even cre- though many rhymes used by children do
ated and used in only one place and at only derive from verse present in the adult com-
one time period, follow the conventions of munity, children subsequently invent vari-
the common rhymes. ations of these rhymes on their own and
The common rhymes and rare rhymes pass them on to their peers. Thus, around
did not differ in average number of lines, the time of the Abdication in 1936, a popu-
with common rhymes containing an aver- lar rhyme among British children was
age of 4.6 lines and rare rhymes containing “Hark the herald angels sing/Mrs. Simpson
an average of 4.1 lines. The average pro- pinched our king.” Even though the jingle
portion of words repeating, rhyming, allit- derives from a Christmas carol known in
erating, showing assonance with another the adult community, the modification was
word, or involved in at least one of these doubtfully invented by adults and was ob-
poetic devices for the common vs rare served only in school children (Opie &
rhymes are .19 vs .14, .24 vs .21, .25 vs .21, Opie, 1959). Since the modifications must
721
RHYTHM OF COUNTING-OUT RHYMES
later be remembered by children, their orthographic similarity among rhymes in
structure should reflect to some extent the formal verse, but no orthographic relation
poetic patterns that aid memory. In addi- among rhymes in counting-out verse. These
tion, even if children learn some specific results indicate that counting-out rhymes
rhymes from adults, the large numbers of were to some extent created by children
existing rhymes and influx of new variants with little influence from adults.
suggest that children are using a productive In sum, counting-out rhymes possess a
system, rather than a few rigid forms. In number of characteristics that make them a
other words, although children learn their good source for investigations of poetic
particular language from hearing specific rhythm. Most importantly, they represent
adult utterances, what they acquire is an an oral poetic tradition whose participants
abstract system of rules rather than the ut- are almost exclusively children. In the first
terances themselves. By analogy, the gen- of two studies, we will analyze the rhyth-
eration of new counting-out variants by mic structure of counting-out verse in terms
children is evidence that they are acquiring of rules known to operate in formal English
abstract rules of prosody, and it is the ac- poetry. The structure of these childhood
quisition of these rules that is the focus of chants, and their similarity to adult poetry,
language development study. may reveal underlying metrical principles
Of course, this last point assumes that that organize English verse at many levels
children do invent some counting-out of sophistication. In terms of developmen-
rhymes. One final test designed to deter- tal psychology, the complexity of counting-
mine whether counting-out rhymes are out rhymes may show children to be re-
somewhat insulated from adult influence markably facile poets who possess, at a
draws upon results from standard psycho- young age, complex metrical rules and keen
linguistic experimentation. In particular, sensitivity to poetic structure. In addition,
Seidenberg and Tannenhaus (1979) found and of more concrete theoretical impor-
that adult listeners were faster at determin- tance for psychologists, analyses of count-
ing whether two words rhyme if the words ing-out rhymes provide a useful methodol-
had similar orthographies. For example, ogy for studying the child’s acquisition of
subjects were faster at classifying “tie” and prosodic rules. Research and theory in lan-
“pie” as rhymes compared with “tie” and guage acquisition have focused on syntax,
“guy,” even though the words were pre- semantics, and word-level phonology,
sented auditorily. Such results suggest that while generally ignoring prosodic devel-
spoken words automatically prime ortho- opment.2 Thus, there is absolutely no data
graphically similar words as well as phono- on the development of some of the most
logically similar words. If such effects in- basic and well-documented rules of phrase-
fluence a poet’s choice of rhyme words, level stress in English. One might claim that
one would predict rhymes in formal verse the most obvious way to fill this gap would
to share orthography more than would be involve acoustic analyses of child speech
predicted by chance. However, since the rather than analyses of verse. However, as
child participants in the counting-out tradi- Levelt (in press) has pointed out, exclusive
tions are at best beginning readers, one reliance on our technology for analyzing
might not expect to see orthographic effects speech could be misleading since it as-
on rhyme selection. If, on the other hand,
counting-out rhymes are influenced by * This criticism applies to developmental investiga-
adults, the rhyme words in counting-out tions of language production rather than comprehen-
sion. A number of recent studies have examined infant
verse should show orthographic similari-
and chid sensitivity to prosody, and its use in detect-
ties. Details of this analysis are presented in
ing, for example, the clause boundaries in speech
Appendix A. The results found evidence of (e.g., Hirsh-Pasek er al., 1987).
722 KELLYANDRUBIN
sumes a complete understanding of the termine the expected weak and strong po-
acoustic correlates of stress and how they sitions in counting-out rhymes. This task is
interact. Our understanding of these vari- more difficult than determining similar po-
ables is still incomplete, and so we should sitions in the work of Shakespeare and Mil-
be prepared to use other types of material ton since one cannot refer to an established
when exploring prosody and prosodic de- poetic tradition with known metrical rules
velopment. Analyses of verse offer one in the case of counting-out verse. Thus we
supplementary way of examining child know that the choice of the sonnet form
prosody because stress is defined in terms constrained Shakespeare to select iambic
of the location of a syllable in a line, an pentameter as the underlying meter of his
operational definition that has worked well lines, and so we know that the odd syllables
in analyses of formal verse (e.g., Halle & in his verse map onto canonical weak posi-
Keyser, 1971). tions whereas the even syllables map onto
canonical strong positions. In the case of
STUDY 1: THERHYTHMIC STRUCTUREOF counting-out rhymes, on the other hand, we
COUNTING-OUT VERSE must induce the underlying metrical pattern
The purpose of this study is to determine of the line based solely on the distribution
whether metrical principles known to orga- of weak and strong syllables found on the
nize formal English verse also operate in “surface.” The means of scansion and the
counting-out verse. Because of the charac- rules used to make these inferences will be
teristics of counting-out rhymes discussed described in the Methods section. For ease
in the introduction, any similarities be- of exposition, the set of comparisons made
tween these two domains may reflect basic between formal and counting-out verse will
principles of English rhythm. For example, be described in the Results section.
in traditional poetic scansion, the monosyl-
Method
labic words in phrases like “rich men”
would both be considered stressed. How- Our sample was drawn from Abrahams
ever, the relative stress placed on these two and Rankin’s Counting-Out Rhymes: A
words differs, with “men” receiving a Dictionary (1980), which lists all citations
slightly stronger accent. This pattern de- to counting-out rhymes found in an exten-
rives from the nuclear stress rule, which sive search of folklore and popular litera-
places primary stress on the rightmost con- ture. The citations are from all over the En-
stituent of a phrase (Chomsky & Halle, glish speaking world and date back to the
1968; Selkirk, 1984). If poets base the mid-nineteenth century. The individual
rhythmic structure of verse on the rhythmic variants were categorized into 582 distinct
structure of ordinary speech, then they rhymes, with the categorizations made, of
should tend to align words such as “rich” course, without knowledge of the purpose
in expected weak positions in their verse of our analyses. Approximately 350 of the
and words such as “men” in expected 582 rhymes are cited only once. Although
strong positions. Indeed, Kiparsky (1975) we weighed common and rare rhymes
has confirmed such predictions in the verse equally, our conclusions are probably not
of a variety of English poets, including jeopardized by this practice. As noted
Shakespeare, Milton, and Pope. (See below above, common and rare rhymes do not dif-
for further details.) If children are also sen- fer OR a variety of measures, and differ-
sitive to the stress differences created by ences that do emerge indicate that the com-
the nuclear stress rule, then similar patterns mon rhymes are better poetically. Thus, if
should be found in counting-out verse. even rare rhymes display consistent rhyth-
Of course, in order to test this and other mic structures then our claims will be true
hypotheses described below, one must de- of the genre as a whole. Later, the most
RHYTHM OF COUNTING-OUT RHYMES 723
frequently cited rhyme will be analyzed in mitted. The first concerned the adverb not
detail to ensure that the results hold for ac- and the copula is. The frequent contraction
tual usage as well as for the genre as a lit- of these words suggests that they are typi-
erary entity. cally unstressed, and they were counted as
Because of the large number of lines such. The second concerned modal words
cited by Abrahams and Rankin and the like could, must, and might, and wh words
variability in the lengths of the lines, our such as who and what. These words were
sample was restricted to all lines containing considered stressed for two reasons. First,
eight syllables. This criterion seemed rea- many are not contractible, a property that
sonable given the frequency and cross- is correlated with the presence of stress
cultural prevalence of octosyllabic lines in (Selkirk, 1984). Second, modals are ac-
child verse (Burling, 1%6), which suggest quired earlier than verbal auxiliaries
that they stand a good chance of being the (Brown, 1973). Since words that children
metrical form most preferred by children, acquire early tend to receive more stress in
or at least a form that is quite central. In adult speech than words acquired later
addition, as lines with fewer and fewer syl- (Gleitman & Wanner, 1982; Miller & Ervin,
lables are used, confidence in the ability to 1964), this earlier acquisition suggests that
determine the underlying metrical structure modals are more stressed in speech than
of a line from its “surface” structure de- are auxiliaries.
creases. Unlike our source dictionary, The intonations of polysyllabic words
therefore, we did use a structural criterion were determined from their preferred cita-
for including lines in our analysis. How- tion stress patterns, if available, as given in
ever, this criterion is quite weak, especially Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary
when compared with the many structural (1977). For the many nonsense words like
criteria used to define various types of for- eeny, mona, and jictum, stress was deter-
mal verse. Nonetheless, when we analyze mined by the intuitions of the fust author. A
the structure of the most common counting- second person determined the stress pat-
out rhyme, all lines will be included regard- terns for the first 150 nonsense words listed
less of length. in the sample. These words were presented
Each line was divided into four disyllabic out of their original lines, but the rater still
feet. The syllables in each foot were then agreed with the author in %% of the words.
scanned using a simple stressed-unstressed Only the primary stress location was
dichotomy. This procedure could therefore counted as a stressed syllable; all second-
result in four different types of foot: iambic ary and tertiary stresses were considered
(weak syliable and strong syllable), tro- unstressed. Although this procedure for de-
chaic (strong-weak), spondee (strong- termining stress is not perfect, it generally
strong), and pyrrhic (weak-weak). A stan- led to interpretable patterns. Thus, the line
dard criterion was used to determine “Eeny meeny figgledy fig” was scanned as
whether a syllable should be stressed or un-
stressed. Monosyllabic words were classi- (3) SW SW SW ws
fied as stressed if they belonged to one of Eeny I meeny / figgle- I dy fig.
the major lexical categories (noun, verb,
Although the final syllable in “figgledy”
adjective, or adverb). All other monosyl-
possessesa slightly stronger stress than the
labic words (determiners, pronouns, prep-
second syllable, it was classed as un-
ositions, contractible auxiliary verbs) were
classified as unstressed. The normal con-
3 Stress marks (S or W) placed above the line rep-
traction of words from such minor catego-
resent the line’s actual scansion. Stress marks placed
ries indicates their unstressed status. Only
below the line represent the abstract metrical pattern
two deviations from these criteria were per- on which the line is based.
724
KELLY AND RUBIN
stressed. Nonetheless, this scansion pro- lines. As with lines from Shakespeare, Mil-
duces an iamb in the final foot, which cor- ton, and Pope, however, some counting-out
responds to the intuitive rhythm of the line. rhymes are primarily iambic or trochaic,
This scansion system is admittedly not the but with certain deviations, as in
most sophisticated possible, and expert
judges (whether adult or child!) might dis-
Wa. s w ws ww w
agree with some of the readings. However,
Play with I the gyp- / sies in I the
the system is simple, easy to replicate, and,
S
most importantly, produces interpretable
wood.
results.
Each scanned line was next classified b. SW SW SW W S
as iambic, trochaic, or other depending on Eenty / teenty / heather- / y bell.
the relative number of iambs and trochees.
Lines with more iambs than trochees were Line 4a is primarily iambic, with iambs
classified as iambic; lines with more tro- present in the second and fourth foot. How-
chees than iambs were classified as tro- ever, the first foot is clearly a trochee, and
chaic; and lines with an equal number of the third has a pyrrhic character. Line 4b,
trochees and iambs were classified as on the other hand, is primarily trochaic,
other. These classifications may seem with trochees occupying the fust three feet.
somewhat arbitrary, given the fact that one However, the final foot deviates from the
does not know whether such lines are truly consistent trochaic pattern, as the line
iambic or trochaic. Perhaps the lines con- closes with an iamb. An initial analysis of
sidered trochaic are actually iambic, but the lines in the sample reveal a large num-
with their initial unstressed syllable de- ber of such deviations, but as in other forms
leted. Such lines are common in English of English verse, certain deviations are
verse, yet they are recognized correctly be- more common than others. These differ-
cause of other information indicating the ences in the frequencies with which certain
poem’s underlying rhythmic structure. The rhythmic deviations appear can give us in-
main justification for the iambic and tro- sights into the types of rules that organize
chaic classifications of the counting-out the rhythmic structure of counting-out
rhymes is that the lines in the two classes rhymes. The discussion of such rules will
show systematic differences, and these dif- be arranged around rules known to con-
ferences resemble those found for known strain the rhythmic structure of other forms
iambic and trochaic lines. Such differences of English verse.
will be discussed below. The sample con- The nuclear stress and compound rules.
sisted of 246 trochaic lines, 157 iambic The stress patterns of the phrase “black
lines, and 30 “other” lines, for a grand total bird” and the compound word “blackbird”
of 433 lines. differ in that primary stress isplaced on
“bird” in the former and “black-” on the
Results latter. These stress differences are corre-
Many of the lines selected from the lated with contrasts in meaning, in that lis-
counting-out rhymes are purely trochaic or teners interpret the phrase “black bird” as
iambic. For instance, the scanning tech- meaning a bird of a particular color,
niques judged each foot in “Eeny meeny whereas the compound “blackbird” is
dixie deeny” and “See the monkeys chew taken to mean a particular species of bird
tobacco” as trochaic. On the other hand, (Gleitman & Gleitman, 1970). The stress
each foot in “He struck a rock, the clumsy pattern of “black bird” derives from the
clot” was classified as iambic. These re- nuclear stress rule (NSR) which places
sults agree with the perceived rhythm of the stress on the rightmost constituent of a
725
RHYTHM OF COUNTING-OUT RHYMES
phrase (Chomsky & Halle, 1968; Selkirk, the opposite pattern is found. In the case of
1984). As such, the stress patterns ob- such disyllabic compound words, the first
served in “black bird” extend beyond noun syllable occupies strong position, with the
phrases to encompass verb phrases (e.g., second syllable being placed in an expected
“drank milk”), and whole sentences (e.g., weak position. Thus, compound words like
“Jack slept”). The stress pattern of “heartache” tend to occupy SW rather
“blackbird” is derived from the compound than WS positions, as shown in 6. This pat-
rule, which assigns stress to the leftmost tern follows from the compound rule,
constituent of the compound (Selkirk, which assigns stress to the prominent syl-
1984). lable in the leftmost constituent of a com-
The contrasting stress contours of pound (Selkirk, 1984).
phrases and compounds seem to be corre-
(6) The heart- / ache, and / the thous- /
lated with contrasting locations in English
verse (Kiparsky, 1975, 1977). Although tra- ws wsws
ditional scansion would treat’ a phrase like and natu- / ral shocks.
“black bird” as two consecutive stressed wsws
syllables, it is clear that they have an iambic (Hamlet, III.i.62)
contour, with “black” being somewhat
The relative placement of phrases and
weaker than “bird.” As a result, “black”
compounds in verse created by poets like
should correspond with an expected weak
Shakespeare also appeared in the counting-
position in a line, with “bird” correspond-
out rhymes. The sample for the NSR anal-
ing with a strong position. Kiparsky (1977)
ysis consisted of all cases of successive syl-
has found that such a pattern is indeed more
lables that were considered stressed by the
likely than one in which “black” occupies
scansion rules, as in “last night,” “moon’s
an expected strong position. Thus, in
making,” and “two lookers.“4 As can be
Shakespeare’s works, we find lines like 5a
observed, each of these cases follows the
more common than lines like 5b. The
nuclear stressr ule in that the primary stress
phrase “true rights” occupies WS position
is on the most prominent syllable of the
rather than SW position, as in the less com-
rightmost constituent. For each of these
mon “proud foot” in 5b. Thus even though
cases, it was determined whether the two
“true rights” would be scanned as a
stressed syllables occupied WS or SW po-
spondee in 5a, it still has an iambic compo-
sition in the verse. The position was deter-
nent to its rhythm, and hence should oc-
mined by whether the line containing the
cupy iambic positions.
phrase was classified as trochaic or iambic
(with lines in the “other” category not in-
Gb. And your / true rights I be
cluded). For example, the line 7a is consid-
ws wsw
ered iambic since the final two feet are clear
termed I a po- I et’s rage. iambs, whereas line 7b is considered tro-
S ws w s
(Sonnet 17.11)
b. Lie at I the proud I foot of / a 4 Analysesin volving the nuclears tressa nd com-
pound rules did not include pseudowords since the
ws w s ws w
former refers to syntactic phrases containing words
con- I queror. from identifiable lexical categories and the latter to
S ws words that can be decomposed into other actual
words. Pseudowords and strings of pseudowords can-
(King John V.vii. 113)
not satisfy these criteria. The analysis presented in the
section Stress and grammatical category also exam-
With compound words like “heartache”
ined only actual English words.
726 KELLY AND RUBIN
chaic since its first three feet are trochees. stress and compound rules. Syllable pairs
In the iambic line, to which the NSR applied tended to occupy
a WS position, in accord with the stress
(7)a. Two look- / ers and / a switch /
contour of such syllable pairs. On the other
about
hand, compound words invariably occu-
b. Mister / Drum’s a f very I
pied a SW position, in accord with the
good man
greater stress placed on the first syllable of
therefore, “two look-” occupies WS posi- compound words. Although firm conclu-
tion, and its placement agrees with the nu- sions cannot be drawn since only seven
clear stress rule. In the trochaic line, on the compound words were observed in the sur-
other hand, “good man” occupies an SW vey, the compound rule seems to constrain
position, which would not be expected if the structure of a line more firmly than does
the nuclear stress rule were operating in the the nuclear stress rule. Kiparsky (1977)
counting-out rhymes. Overall, 61% (57 of found a similar asymmetry in his analysis of
93) of the items included in this analysis formal English poetry. This pattern may be
followed the nuclear stress rule, which is attributable to the fact that the relative
significant statistically (2 = 2.02, p < .05).5 stress difference between the syllables in a
The compound rule also appeared to in- compound is greater than that between the
fluence the location of words in the count- syllables in a phrase like “black bird.” In
ing-out rhymes. This analysis consisted of particular, the weak syllable in “black
all words that could be construed as com- bird” is much stronger than the weak syl-
pounds. Words were considered compound lable in “blackbird,” as a consequence of
if they could be divided into components which the former may be approximately
that could stand as free morphs. As in Ki- scanned as a spondee. Such a scansion
parsky’s analysis of English poets, hyphen- would be almost unthinkable with the com-
ated words (e.g., “tea-pot”) were consid- pound word. Thus the pressure against
ered compounds. Only seven such items placing the weak syllable of a compound in
were found in the survey, but all seven of a strong position should be greater than the
them followed the compound rule, as in the pressure against placing the weak syllable
iambic line 8, where “teapot” occurs in SW of a phrase in a strong position. The former
position. deviations are therefore more rarely ob-
served.
(8) Your mo- / ther broke / the tea- /
The principle of rhythmic alternation.
pot lid
For almost a century, analyses of rhythmic
In sum, as in the verse of major English structure have concluded that people prefer
poets, the rhythmic structure of counting- rhythmic patterns consisting of alternating
out rhymes conforms to both the nuclear strong and weak beats over other patterns
(Sweet, 1975-1976; Bresnan, 1973; Selkirk,
1984). Indeed, this preference is so strong
5 A point needs to be made here about the use of the that listeners “hear” an alternating rhythm
word “rule” in terms like the nuclear stress rule. Such in speech that objectively lacks such varia-
rules are only one factor operating on word choice and
tion (Martin, 1970), and speakers adjust the
rhythmic structure, and hence one should not expect
them to be satisfied 100% of the tune either in formal stress patterns on words in order to estab-
or counting-out verse. Our weak prediction, which is lish rhythmic alternation. For instance,
consistently tested, only claims that they will have when asked to read nonsense words like
some effect beyond chance levels. Our strong predic- “pernew,” speakers are more likely to
tion, which is harder to test statistically but appears to
place stress on the second syllable in the
be supported by the data, is that effects in child and
adult verse should be comparable in magnitude. context of “The big pemew escaped” than
RHYTHM OF COUNTING-OUT RHYMES 727
in the context of “Save the pernew account of the preference toward rhythmic
quickly” (Kelly & Bock, 1988). In the altemation.6
former sentence, placing stress on the first Constraints at foot boundaries. Although
syllable of “pemew” will create a stress stressed syllables of polysyllabic words fre-
clash since “big” will also receive a strong quently occupy unstressed locations in En-
stress. In order to avoid this clash, speak- glish verse, such deviations very rarely
ers tend to place stress on the second syl- cross foot boundaries (Kiparsky, 1977). For
lable . instance, in line 9a from Paradise Lost,
The bias toward rhythmic alternation in Milton places the trochaic word, “future,”
both formal and counting-out verse is so in iambic position. Note, however, that the
strong that statistical confirmation is super- two consecutive deviant beats occur within
fluous. However, finer analyses based on a foot. Violations such as 9b, drawn from
this preference can also be performed. In Donne, in which the iambic “himself’ oc-
particular, Selkirk (1984) has argued that cupies the SW position and so crosses a
the principle of rhythmic alternation resists foot boundary, are quite rare in English
two consecutive stressed syllables more verse and “simply do not occur in Milton”
strongly than two consecutive unstressed (Kiparsky, 1977, p. 202).
syllables. In the latter case, the unstressed
(9)a. Beyond / all past / examp- / le and I
syllables are more easily blended together,
future (P.L. 10.840)
thus more readily maintaining an equal tem-
b. Which Him- I self on I those dot- I
poral interval between successive stresses.
tors did / bestow. (“Temple,” 4)
If such an interpretation is correct, then in
Foot boundaries thus seem to impose
English poetry one would expect succes-
constraints on rhythmic violations in En-
sive stressed syllables to be rarer than suc-
cessive unstressed syllables. Some evi- glish verse. This pattern suggests that the
dence supports this conjecture. In an anal- foot is indeed a psychologically fundamen-
ysis of middle and modem English verse, tal unit in our poetry. Perhaps the most ba-
sic measure in English verse is two beats,
Tarlinskaya (1973) found that consecutive
weak syllables were more common than the smallest unit that can establish a rhyth-
successive strong syllables. In Skelton and mic contrast. Still, however, the impor-
Lydgate, for example, two weak beats ap- tance of the foot may be an artifact arising
peared consecutively in 15% and 19.4% of from a particular poetic tradition that arbi-
the lines sampled from the respective po- trarily gives it a “real” status (Selkirk,
ets. However, consecutive strong beats 1984). The naturalness of the foot boundary
were found in only 12% of Skelton’s and may therefore depend on the poet’s tacit,
11.8% of Lydgate’s lines. If the counting- but not necessary, recognition of the foot in
out rhymes also resist consecutive stressed his or her writing.
syllables more strongly than successive 6 Thesea nalyseasr e somewhaflat wed in that they
unstressed syllables, one should find spon-
are based on the percentage of lines that contain at
dees rarer than pyrrhics. Indeed, such a least one spondee or pyrrhic rather than the percent-
pattern was observed. Whereas spondees age of feet characterized by these stress patterns. It is
appeared in 15.4% of all lines in the count- possible that pyrrhics could appear in more lines than
spondees while still being less frequently used overall.
ing-out rhymes (62/403), pyrrhics appeared Perhaps lines very rarely contain more than one pyr-
in a significantly larger 27.8% (112/403) of
rhic foot, whereas multiple spondees appear often in
all lines (Z = 4.37, p < .Ol). In general, the same line. Although Tarlinskaya does not present
then, formal poetry and counting-out her comparisons in terms of feet, we can do such an
rhymes agree in showing greater resistance analysis with the counting-out lines. The basic pattern
is replicated as 4.5% of all feet in the rhymes are
to successive strong beats than to succes-
spondees, whereas 8.5% are phyrric (Z = 4.54, p <
sive weak beats, as predicted by Selkirk’s
.Ol).