The Rhythmic Structure of English Verse

A revised version of the author's earlier account of metrical rules for iambic pentameter, "Stress, Syntax, and Meter" (SSM) (Language, 1975, 51, 576-616), is presented. The present formulation is based on M. Liberman's use of tree notation rather than numbers to represent stress assignment (The Intonational System of English, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Instit of Technology, Cambridge, 1975.). Complexity of meter is accounted for on the basis of degree of congruence between hierarchical stress & stress assigned by a set of metrical rules with varied constraints. The admissibility or inadmissibility of various matches is shown to account for differences in metrical style between English poets from Shakespeare to Wyatt. The metrical rules are formulated as a set of unordered conditions on the matching of stress & meter. They are superior to SSM because: (1) they are unordered, (2) they account for both complexity of meter & unmetricality, (3) they are applicable to all poets, given a specific metrical form, & (4) they correctly predict the complexity of certain forms not accounted for by SSM. Prosodic rules are defined as separate from metrical rules. They apply to phonological representations & are formulated like phonological rules. The metrical conditions operate on the output of these prosodic rules. 2 Tables. B. Annesser