A Theory of Meter (Janua Linguarum. Series Minor, 36)

How many events are needed to constitute a series? Common sense answers that a single sequence cannot make rhythm but that two or more are needed. 4 We must also distinguish 1 Td^i? xp6vcov. 1 H. C. Warren, Dictionary of Psychology (Boston, 1934), p. 234. E. A. Sonnenschein, What Is Rhythm? (Oxford, 1925), p. 16, defines rhythm as "that property of a sequence of events in time which produces on the mind of the observer the impression of proportion between the durations of the several events or groups of events of which the sequence is composed". Paul Fraisse, Les Structures Rythmiques (Louvain, 1956), pp. 3-4, quotes a group of interesting definitions. 8 Sonnenschein, p. 14. The problem, of course, is only semantic. The esthetician who prefers to think of rhythm as "proportioned arrangement" in general can distinguish two kinds of rhythm, temporal and spatial. The essential temporality of rhythm is also asserted by Fraisse, p. 3, and the Russian Formalists: see V. Erlich, Russian Formalism ('s-Gravenhage, 1955), p. 182, fn. 5. 4 R. MacDougall, "The Relation of Auditory Rhythm to Nervous Discharge", Psychological Review, IX (1902), 461-462. ' Fraisse's method of determining the limit was as follows: subjects were asked to accompany with finger taps a metronome set at different speeds. The metronome was turned off, and the accuracy of their rhythmic sense in continuing the taps at proper intervals was measured. Fraisse, pp. 13-15, noted that the subject's estimates of the intervals became increasingly inaccurate from 1.2 seconds to 3 seconds. 10 J. E. Wallace Wallin, "Experimental Studies of Rhythm and Time", Psychological Review, XVIII (1911), 108. 3. \*\*\*|\*\*\*|\*\*\* [\*\*\* (two unequal intervals) 4. \* \*\* \* j \* \*• \* j \* \*\* \* (three unequal intervals) 5. \* \*\* \* | \* \*\* \* j \* \*\* \* (threeunequal intervals) and so forth.

Schon seit ihrer Gründung in den 1970er-Jahren ist die Reihe Germanistische Linguistik (RGL) exponiertes Forum des Faches, dessen Namen sie im Titel führt. Hinsichtlich der thematischen Breite (Sprachebenen, Varietäten, Kommunikationsformen, Epochen), der Forschungsperspektiven (Theorie und Empirie, Grundlagenforschung und Anwendung, Inter- und Transdisziplinarität) und des methodologischen Spektrums ist die Reihe offen angelegt. Das Aufgreifen neuer Trends hat in ihr ebenso Platz wie das Fortführen von Bewährtem. Die Publikationsformen reichen von Monographien und Sammelbänden bis zu Wörterbüchern.

Wissenschaftlicher Beirat (ab November 2011):

Prof. Dr. Karin Donhauser (Berlin)
Prof. Dr. Stephan Elspaß (Augsburg)
Prof. Dr. Helmuth Feilke (Gießen)
Prof. Dr. Jürg Fleischer (Marburg)
Prof. Dr. Stephan Habscheid (Siegen)
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Harnisch (Passau)

Preface Table of Contents I. Introduction II. The Nature of Rhythm III. Phonological Backgrounds to Metrical Analysis IV. Objective Analyses of Metrical Properties: A Survey V. The Components of English Meter VI. Shakespeare's Eighteenth Sonnet: An Experiment in Metrical Analysis VII. The Function of Meter Appendix. The Stress Systems of Kenneth Pike, and George L. Trager and Henry Lee Smith, Jr.