The role of French in a typology of metrical forms

old_uid15827
titleThe role of French in a typology of metrical forms
start_date2015/06/16
schedule11h-13h
onlineno
location_infosalle 311
summaryIn this talk I offer a reflection on the role of French meters in a typology of metrical forms. This reflection unfolds in three steps: firstly, I delimit a small corpus of metrical lines in French poetry, on which I raise some key typological questions (relative to: #1, asymmetries in mapping between metrical positions and syllables; #2, L-R asymmetries at (half-)line edges; #3, potential gaps evidenced by French, e.g. in borrowings of foreign metrical forms or features); secondly, I consider the relationship between typology and theory of metrical forms, with particular reference to the above questions, in Hanson & Kiparsky (1996), Fabb & Halle (2008), among other linguistic theories; finally, I discuss the inclusion of these metrical forms within VersTyp2 ( a new typological database of verse forms centered on a heuristic approach to data) , and how this may account for these forms. I conclude by framing the evidence discussed in the light of existing work in metrical typology (starting from Gasparov 1996 and Aroui & Arleo 2009) . I suggest that the three steps outlined above (specific typological questions, relation to theory, heuristic procedure) may serve as the basis to construct a viable metrical typology.
responsiblesAroui