Course outline

1. Meter and rhythm. Periodicity, hierarchy, constituency. Metrical phonology and the English stress system in outline. The representation of metrical structure.

   Steele, Introduction and Ch. 1. For an overview of metrical phonology and specifically English stress, look at the portions of Hayes 1995 provided in the box. For an overview of metrics and poetics, see Hanson 2002.

2. Goals of metrical theory. Correspondence rules as the site of metrical variation. Comparing alternative accounts of English meter.

   Steele, Ch. 2.

3. Special phonological processes in poetic language. Prosodic rules.

   Steele, Ch. 4.

4. Trochaic and ternary meters, mixed forms.

   Steele, Chs. 3 and 5.

5. Rhyme, alliteration in English and cross-linguistically. The artistry of hip-hop rhymes.

   Steele, Ch. 6, Alim 2003.

6. Syntax, phrasing, and meter. Caesuras and line breaks. Parallelism.

   Jakobson 1966.

7. Meter, stanzas, and musical rhythm. Optimality-theoretic approaches.

   Steele, Ch. 7, Hayes and McEachern 2003, Kiparsky 2003.

8. Sprung rhythm, accentual verse, free verse.

   Steele, Ch. 8, Kiparsky 1989.

9. Rhythm in music, its relation to language and meter. The text-to-tune problem.

   Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983), Chs. 1-4, J. Halle (MS).

10. Real and apparent non-periodic meters, additive musical rhythm. Syllable-counting verse. The Romance hendecasyllable. Chinese regulated verse. North Indian, Arabic, and Balkan metrical/musical forms.

    Yip 1984, Chen 1979, Prince 1983.

11. Universals of rhythmic structure in language and verbal art. The interplay of convention and natural form.

    Steele, Ch. 9, portions of Hanson and Kiparsky 1996, Fabb 2002.

12. Meter and meaning.