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Published on: September 27, 2024
Poetic rhyme reflects cross-linguistic differences in information structure
Michael Wagner1, Katherine McCurdy
1McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada, Canada. chael@mcgill.ca
Cognition
|October 5, 2010
Summary
English and French poetry differ in rhyme acceptance due to language-specific prosody constraints. This study explores how information structure influences poetic form across languages.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Phonetics
- Comparative Literature
Background:
- Identical rhymes are accepted in French poetry but not English.
- This difference persists despite cross-cultural adoption of other poetic forms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the linguistic basis for differing rhyme acceptability in English and French poetry.
- To test the hypothesis that information-structure affects prosody differently in each language, influencing rhyme perception.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of rhyme usage in French and English poetry.
- Perception experiments with native speakers to assess rhyme judgments.
- Further experiments to identify prosodic constraints influencing rhyme perception.
Main Results:
- Native speakers' intuitions about rhyme acceptability differ significantly between English and French.
- A prosodic constraint active in English, but not French, was identified as a key factor.
Conclusions:
- Rhyme acceptability in poetry is influenced by language-specific prosodic constraints rooted in information structure.
- Poetic artistic expression can be constrained by general linguistic properties.
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