A Literary Reaction to "A Phonetician's View of Verse Structure" [pre-print].

Abstract

This is a pre-print version of an article approved for publication in 'Language and Style: an International Journal', published by the City University of New York. The journal's editors have stated that this essay is "a major contribution to the study of verse structure, and to the linguistics of literature in general." They continue by saying that many of Professor Daalder's points in this article "have materially advanced the study of poetry from a linguistic point of view." In this article, Daalder considers David Abercrombie's paper 'A Phonetician's View of Verse Struture' as presented in his 1965 book, entitled "Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics". Daadler examines Abercrombie's influential essay not only for its own interest, but also as a mode of viewing verse which, in England at any rate, appears to have its origin in the eighteenth century, and which too often bedevils prosodic discussion at any time. The second part of this paper finds that the arguments embodied in "A Phonetician's View of Verse Structure" are in essence those of Joshua Steele in his "An Essay Towards Establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech", published in 1775.